Beautiful Thorns

 

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.” Anne Bronte

 

Today was super cold out again after a warm weekend and while there was limited activity out in the gardens, we had a decent turnout of volunteers for inside work.  Ron Y., Jim, Dave, Vern and Bob K. had some carpentry projects and odd jobs to accomplish.  Dick H. did some work on the vehicles and Maury was in to run errands and do some watering.  Alan M. stopped in for tool cleaning and we also saw Bill O., Rollie, Gary S. and many others today.  Larry salted some paths and had a combination of indoor and outdoor work while I am shifting to 2015 preparations.

 

I picked some thorny plants today for the blog where I thought the thorns were an ornamental feature.  Above and below is the porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthum) which has these neat orange spines in profusion.  This plant is poisonous as is the fruit.  However, its value as a novelty is apparent!  In fact, three of my thorny subjects today are in the nightshade family!   



 

porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthum)

porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthum)



porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthum)

Naranjilla  (Solanum quitoense) - produces edible fruit!

 same as above

 same as above

 same as above

 purple spine or malevolence (Solanum atropurpureum) - poisonous!

 same as above

 same as above

 castor aralia (Kalopanax pictus) - woody tree