Monday, December 11, 2006

Hardy Orange (Poncirus trifoliata)



Hardy Orange
Poncirus trifoliata
(pon-SEER-us) (try-foh-lee-AY-tuh)

This is an interesting plant I saw at Longwood. It had quite a crop of fruit. I had forgotten about this plant and had not seen it growing in several years. I have never seen it growing in Connecticut but imagine it could survive in some of the coastal areas. One website had it rated Zone 5 for hardiness and one said Zone 6. The fruit is very bitter but can be used juice and conserves. The thorns are wicked! This would make an excellent living fence, as anything that tried to pass through it would be torn to shreds. It gets to 20 feet tall but the specimens at Longwood were about 12 to 15 feet tall.



This second picture is from a wreath competition at Longwood. The wreaths were basically made from bits and pieces from the garden. I wished I wrote down the artist’s name after I took this picture. It was very creatively done.

Synonyms: Japanese Hardy Orange, Bitter Orange

1 comment:

Ki said...

It does look like the hardy orange would make a good marmalade.