Trying to ID what's growing with my banana plants. I covered them with cedar mulch last fall, and when I uncovered them, it was growing. What may not show up clearly are the large green thorns that have appeared all over the plant.

Looks like a citrus of some kind.

Calif_Sue said:Looks like a citrus of some kind.

Many types are thorny. Check the leaf and see if it has an odor. I suspect it to be a lemon or an orange.

That's what I suspected when I saw the thorns and the "trunk" hardening today. The strange part is that I have two Paige mandarin trees on the other side of the yard. They didn't bear fruit last year, plus different leaves, so I doubt it's from them.

Now I just have to figure out what type of citrus it is, mostly due to cold tolerance. Unfortunately my sense of smell is off due to having covid late last year, so smelling the leaves is out.

Thanks

Roncoslicer said:That's what I suspected when I saw the thorns and the "trunk" hardening today. The strange part is that I have two Paige mandarin trees on the other side of the yard. They didn't bear fruit last year, plus different leaves, so I doubt it's from them.

Now I just have to figure out what type of citrus it is, mostly due to cold tolerance. Unfortunately, my sense of smell is off due to having covid late last year, so smelling the leaves is out.

Thanks

Np :)


Many juvenile trees (including some citrus) have different leaves than their mature leaf forms, and also, citrus trees have thorns as young plants but lose them as they get older, so don't just look at the mature form of whatever citrus tree you suspect it to be.

Good luck with your tree!

It may be the Trifoliate orange (Citrus trifoliata) a/k/a Trifoliate Orange which is apparently a Texas invasive: http://www.tsusinvasives.org/h...

plantladylin said:It may be the Trifoliate orange (Citrus trifoliata) a/k/a Trifoliate Orange which is apparently a Texas invasive: http://www.tsusinvasives.org/h...

Huh! No wonder it popped up in their yard!

The trifoliate orange was the only citrus here that survived the Valentine freeze. I suspect that is what you have.

The leaves don't look trifoliate to me, they look simple with winged petioles

sooby said:The leaves don't look trifoliate to me, they look simple with winged petioles

You definitely have a point.

Trifoliate leaves really are trifoliate so its not that. As G2493 pointed out, immature citrus look quite different than their adult counterparts. At maturity, the petioles may lose the wings and the branches may lose the thorns but the leaves will never be 3-part.

DaisyI said:Trifoliate leaves really are trifoliate so its not that. As G2493 pointed out, immature citrus look quite different than their adult counterparts. At maturity, the petioles may lose the wings and the branches may lose the thorns but the leaves will never be 3-part.

Yes, this is probably not trifoliate orange. Looking at "trifoliate orange saplings" results on the internet, even the young seedlings of trifoliate orange have trifoliate leaves. It has to be some other type of citrus.

Yes, I just looked at a trifoliate seedling. It had three part leaves right from the start. Was the little tree outdoors in Texas during the freeze? I can't imagine how it survived.

Maybe this article would help narrow it down, it lists citrus in terms of cold hardiness in descending order from trifoliate:

University of Florida - cold hardy citrus
http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.ed...

Thanks, Sue. Here, at least, the freeze killed Kumquat and all those less hardy on the list which was why I suggested Trifoliate initially. I am still mystified.