Paliurus spina-christi
Plant of the month: April
Also Known As: real crown of thorns / Christ’s thorn
Native To: Mediterranean region from Morocco and Spain, east to Iran and Tajikistan and southwest and central Asia.
Blooms: yellow flowers in spring, disc-shaped, seed-heads in autumn
Habitat: Dry, sandy hillsides
Where Found: Arid House
This plant was used in Christ’s crucifixion. It’s prickly stems were cut and placed on Jesus’s head, before he was nailed to a cross.
It has long been used as a prickly hedging plant in warm climates. Hardy down to -15C, it can be grown outside in the U.K on a warm, sunny, south-facing wall. This will enable it to reshoot from the base, if the cold has killed the top-growth during bad winters.
Our plant was grown from wild collected seed from Jerusalem.