Paliurus spina-christi

Plant of the month: April

Paliurus spina-christi

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.