Gardening Australia

Any idea what this plant is?


Hi all, just hoping for an ID in this plant in my backyard.

It has got long thorns. At first i thought it was a citris of some kind, but it has never flowered or had fruit..

Any help IDing would be great, thanks! 😊

by sabsify

15 Comments

  1. Sorry, forgot to say on the sunny coast, qld!

  2. Wide-Way-3874

    Definitely looks like a citrus, maybe a lime?

  3. MissionAsparagus9609

    Its some sorta citrus growing from the root stock, eg below the graft. Cut it off

    Edit: the spikey bits indicate from root stock aNd wont bear fruit. prune everything off below the graft. The graft line should be obvious near the base. Their may be a fruit tree in their somewhere.

  4. treeslip

    Definitely looks like a citrus, crush a leaf and smell it.

  5. Positive-Reward2863

    Lemon. Not entirely sure which one but I bet it has tasty ones. The tree told me so..

    Prune the lower branches and the stragglers. At least.

    And get rid of grass around the base of it. Please.

  6. Key_Net_3517

    How long have you been there OP? It’s definitely a citrus. I can’t see if it’s grafted or not. If someone grew it from a seed it could take years to fruit.

  7. Cheltenham3192

    Looks like our lemon tree so probably a citrus of some sort.

    Never knew lemons had spikes until we bought a house with a 50-60 year old tree. WDYK.

  8. One-Connection-8737

    Citrus – most likely an escaped rootstock from a graft.

  9. Thank you all! Not experienced gardeners here. Just learning as we go!
    Interesting information. Now need to think about how to approach it.

    Thanks again, all!

  10. If it’s never flowered and thus never had fruit, I’d be very suspicious that it’s ever going to. It looks too big to not have pushed out a few fruits. Like others have said it might have grown from a stray seed or rootstock that’s taken over. I wouldn’t want to waste the space on a thorny bush if it isn’t even going to give me lemons.

    Replace it with a variety you like.

  11. Particular_Lie_773

    The plant looks like it could be a citrus tree, possibly an orange or lemon tree. The leaves have a characteristic glossy green appearance typical of many citrus trees. I think so..

  12. BusElectronic410

    The leaves look like my orange tree’s leaves

  13. Cordeceps

    Some kind of citrus – possibly a pioneer orange.

  14. Phronias

    Most likely the rootstock has grown and taken over long ago.
    The fruit will tell you for certain as Yuzu’s also have big, nasty thorns tho, l would fair a guess it’s the rootstock and not a Yuzu.

    It will be a citron, sometimes called a bush lemon.
    Thick skin and peels like a mandarin – easy.
    Flesh will be yellow like a lemon and either sour or sometimes bitter.

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