Trees - Trifoliate Orange
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  (September) I have a plant or shrub that I can't identify. I have named it 'the Plant of Death' It is growing in the woods behind my house. I think there may have been a house place in the area because I've seen a couple of ornamental plants where they don't seem to belong. It is about 8 or 10 feet tall with thin limbs. It looks more like a bush than anything else. It has small leaves, oval shaped. It does not have a main trunk, but multiple ones. The limbs stay green year round. It has two very special features. First it has VERY nasty looking spikes. They go from almost no length to maybe 2 inches. They are not straight, but are buttressed like the trunk of a cypress. They are very sharp on the end and seem strong. If you ran into this thing in the woods, you would surely die... well maybe not, but this is the nastiest looking plant I think I've ever seen. The second feature is a fruit. They are about ping pong ball sized and were green and very hard through the spring and summer. Just in the last week or two they are turning yellow. A friend has suggested that this is a wild lemon tree. I have picked a few of the fruit and cut one open. It did indeed appear like a lemon on the inside. It was practically full of seeds. The texture outside is smooth with a slight fuzzy feeling. It has a not unpleasant smell, but doesn't smell like a lemon. It didn't smell like a lemon on the inside either. If you know what this is, I and my whole office would like to know. Also is the fruit OK to eat, aka make 'wild' lemonade? Others in my office want seeds to make nasty plants to hurt house burglars when they come calling. It sure looks like it would do a job on one. I don't understand if it is a lemon tree. I thought those were tropical. Could the wild variety be hardy enough for here?

  Your plant is called a Trifoliate Orange -- Poncirus trifoliata. Notice how the leaves are arranged in threes? The fruits are edible, but can be a bit bitter. Some people do make lemonade –adding loads of sugar! It would make an excellent plant to keep burglars out, or teenagers in! It can spread out over time, but makes a lovely small specimen -- if you can stay away from the thorns. The flowers are fragrant and white in the spring, followed by the yellowish fruits in the fall. Tough performer in the garden, extremely heat and cold tolerant, the plant has escaped into the wild from seeds dropped. It is native to Korea and China, and is commonly used as rootstock for commercial citrus plants.

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