English Box Thorn ??? - bonsaiTALK Community

22-Apr-2007

anttal63

bend me twist me

Join Date: Jul-2006

Location: melbourne

Country: australia

Posts: 2,282

English Box Thorn ???

this abnoxious weed grows rampant through the district i live in and i would suspect through out the outer suburbs of melbourne. it is deciduous, coming into flower now (mid autumn). dainty little white flowers and later producing little orange berries. it also has a vicous thorn. i collected this one from an industrial area a year ago. back in spring 06 it budded profusely but then was attacked by aphids like ive never seen before, curling up all the new foliage. i gave it a good spray and alas the pests were dead and so was all the new growth. ive just recently cleaned all the debris off it, pruned basal shoots and wired it. it appears that it could make good bonsai.has any body out there played with one that can share there knowledge, maybe even a photo.

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	08042007092.jpg (68.5 KB, 36 views)
	08042007093.jpg (67.3 KB, 28 views)
	08042007094.jpg (70.9 KB, 20 views)

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Antonio . . .
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23-Apr-2007	#2
anttal63 bend me twist me Join Date: Jul-2006 Location: melbourne Country: australia Posts: 2,282	? ? ? __________________ Antonio . . . ------------------------------------ http://www.ausbonsai.com/forum/index.php (unlimited)

24-Apr-2007

bonsainotwar

Grower of potted sticks

Join Date: Dec-2005

Location: NewMexico

Country: USA

USDA Zone: 6-7

AHS Heat Zone: 15

Posts: 315

I have no clue as to what you have.Wikipedia says this about Box Thorn

Quote:

genus (tribe Lycieae, family Solanaceae) of about 90 species of plants native throughout much of the subtropical zones of the world, mostly found in dry, semi-saline environments. Common names include wolfberry, desert-thorn, Christmas berry, Matrimony vine, and the confusing "Tea-tree" (it is not related to tea, and with the foliage being toxic, should not be used as such). There are ~20 species in North America, ~30 species in South America, ~30 species in Africa, ~10 species in Eurasia, and one species in Australia. Grabowskia and Phrodus join Lycium in tribe Lycieae, and are the genera most closely related to Lycium.

They are long-lived, perennial, thorny shrubs, with deciduous alternate, simple leaves 1-8 cm long. The flowers are solitary or in small clusters, 6-25 mm diameter, with a corolla of five purple, white or greenish-white petals joined together at their bases. The fruit is fleshy, multiseeded berry 8-20 mm diameter that may be red, yellow, orange, purple or black. These fruit resemble nightshade and bittersweet berries. In some species, notably L. barbarum (Wolfberry), the fruit is edible (see that species for further detail).

Most species of Lycium are cosexual (all flowers have both male and female function), however, several species exhibit gender dimorphism. Evidence suggests that sexual dimorphism has evolved more than once in the Lycium genus. There are species that have both monecious and dioceous populations, most notably L. californicum

This is the picture you see the most on the web

I have a Texas Wolfberry myself

but it is several years away from being a bonsai.It is a number of smaller plants that fused together,and will eventually be an unusual cascade.

24-Apr-2007	#4
anttal63 bend me twist me Join Date: Jul-2006 Location: melbourne Country: australia Posts: 2,282	thankyou bnw for coming back with such effort on this. the first picture of the article is my bush for sure. now does that mean that these are native to australia? toxic yep when i was a child i got a thorn in my ankle, which swelled up to twice its size and couldnt walk on it for a day or two but did get better soon after. ive got a feeling its gonna make good bonsai, if styled within its characteristics, very angular. i would love to see a photo of yours. __________________ Antonio . . . ------------------------------------ http://www.ausbonsai.com/forum/index.php (unlimited)

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