Paliurus spina-christi Christ's Thorn PFAF Plant Database

2 New Books ** Edible Plants: An inspirational guide to choosing and growing unusual edible plants and Woodland Gardening (Forest) [Paperback]. more >>


Search Page Content

Paliurus spina-christi - Mill.

Common Name

Christ's Thorn

Family

Rhamnaceae

Synonyms

P. aculeata. P. australis. P. virgatus.

Known Hazards

None known

Habitats

Hedges, roadsides and thickets, in maquis and garigue on dry sandy hills to 3000 metres[89].

Range

S. Europe to W. Asia.

Edibility Rating

Medicinal Rating

Care

Summary

Physical Characteristics

Paliurus spina-christi is a deciduous Shrub growing to 5 m (16ft) by 5 m (16ft) at a medium rate.
It is hardy to zone 8. It is in flower from Jul to August, and the seeds ripen from Oct to December. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)

Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very alkaline soils.
It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cillas

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Franz_Xaver

Habitats
Woodland Garden Sunny Edge; Dappled Shade; Hedge;

Edible Uses
Edible Parts: Fruit. Edible Uses: Fruit - raw or dried for later use. A pleasant sub-acid taste, somewhat resembling dried apples[183]. The woody fruit is up to 30mm in diameter[200].

Medicinal Uses
Plants For A Future can not take any responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. Always seek advice from a professional before using a plant medicinally. Astringent; Diuretic; Tonic. Anticathartic, astringent, diuretic and tonic[218].

Other Uses
Hedge; Hedge. The plants are used for hedging, they have a loose but bushy habit[11, 200].

Cultivation details

Succeeds in an ordinary well-drained garden soil in full sun[182, 200]. Tolerates light shade[202]. Prefers a limy soil[200]. Grows well in dry soils and, once established, is drought tolerant[184]. Prefers a light sandy soil in a warm sunny position[245]. Hardy to about -15°c[184]. Plants are of slow to moderate growth[202]. The branches are pliable and excessively spiny[11]. Plants can regrow from the base if they are cut back by severe weather[200]. The flowers are slightly perfumed[245]. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus[200].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame and moved into the greenhouse in February. Fair to good germination[78]. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and overwinter them in the greenhouse for their first year. Plant them out in early summer. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame[200]. Root cuttings 4cm long, December in a greenhouse. Fair to good percentage[78]. Layering

Plant Suppliers: Click here for a List

You can download this page as a PDF

Expert comment

Author
Mill.

Botanical References
1189200

Links / References

[11]Bean. W. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement.

A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures.

[78]Sheat. W. G. Propagation of Trees, Shrubs and Conifers.

A bit dated but a good book on propagation techniques with specific details for a wide range of plants.

[89]Polunin. O. and Huxley. A. Flowers of the Mediterranean.

A very readable pocket flora that is well illustrated. Gives some information on plant uses.

[182]Thomas. G. S. Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos.

Contains a wide range of plants with a brief description, mainly of their ornamental value but also usually of cultivation details and varieties.

[183]Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants.

Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[184]Phillips. R. & Rix. M. Shrubs.

Excellent photographs and a terse description of 1900 species and cultivars.

[200]Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992.

Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[202]Davis. B. Climbers and Wall Shrubs.

Contains information on 2,000 species and cultivars, giving details of cultivation requirements. The text is terse but informative.

[218]Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China

Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.

[245]Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World.

An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers comment

QR Code

What's this?

This is a QR code (short for Quick Response) which gives fast-track access to our website pages. QR Codes are barcodes that can be read by mobile phone (smartphone) cameras. This QR Code is unique to this page. All plant pages have their own unique code. For more information about QR Codes click here.

1. Copy and print the QR code to a plant label, poster, book, website, magazines, newspaper etc and even t-shirts.

2. Smartphone users scan the QR Code which automatically takes them to the webpage the QR Code came from.

3. Smartphone users quickly have information on a plant directly for the pfaf.org website on their phone.

Rate This Plant
Please rate this plants for how successful you have found it to be. You will need to be logged in to do this. Our intention is not to create a list of 'popular' plants but rather to highlight plants that may be rare and unusual and that have been found to be useful by website users. This hopefully will encourage more people to use plants that they possibly would not have considered before.

Add a comment/link

If you have important information about this plant that may help other users please add a comment or link below. Only comments or links that are felt to be directly relevant to a plant will be included. If you think a comment/link or information contained on this page is inaccurate or misleading we would welcome your feedback at admin@pfaf.org. If you have questions about a plant please use the Forum on this website as we do not have the resources to answer questions ourselves.

* Please note: the comments by website users are not necessarily those held by PFAF and may give misleading or inaccurate information.

Subject : Paliurus spina-christi

Links	To add a link to another website with useful info add the details here
Name of Site
URL of Site
Details