Thorny thing - what is it?

[whatnow?]

I have three of these things growing at the edge of the yard, along the woods. It gets a fruit with an orange peel texture, but green. The thorns are as long as my thumb.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cassandra]

My grandmother told me that was a wild lemon bush. I drove a 3-wheeler into one when I was about twelve.

You remember things like that.

Cassandra

 

[whatnow?]

THANK YOU for the idea - i think it is a trifoliate orange! Sometimes the answer is much easier to get if someone has a good starting point.

My neighbor used to use pieces from it to make a crown of thorns for The Passion Play every year. We didn't care for it, but thought it would be rude to her to remove it... after all, she'd lived in the house next door for 40 years.

 

[Cassandra]

I think you are right! I looked up pics and it does look like that.

I was always fascinated with the plant. It looks so brutal--menacing and proud. Funny how things evolve to protect themselves....

Cassandra

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Yep, trifoliate orange. I bought some this year, because I read you can use the juice and rind in cooking . . . it's the only orange that we have a chance of growing outdoors in our neck of the woods. I've been wondering though if the oranges need to ripen before you can cook with them? Does anyone know?

 

[silkiechicken]

So that's what that is! I remember as a kid picking them and throwing them at my brother.

Now my brother and I have been trying to destroy the thing for the past 10 years. Every year we chip it to the ground, and split up the trunk bottom since it's too close to the fence and rotted a part of it out. It just keeps coming back. We aren't trying hard enough though