What the hell is this?

[Vertmorpheus]

Big, scary tree...vicious spines all over, sprouted seeds gave me seedlings with thorns on main stem and branches at less than 4 inches tall...REAL thorns. Got one of these snapped off in my shoulder three years ago and it STILL hurts sometimes, went nicely septic (woohoo! did wonders for joan of arc right?). Got a few other piccies if these don't help much. Birds don't eat the seeds, which have a dodgy germ tendency, want to be nice and deep. Tree to maybe 10 metres. LOTS of seeds stored, and no they're not giji giji , beans are much larger and more oval than round. I wouldn't swallow them all the same though Beans arranged along those long wavy pods, takes a while for them to loosen up enough to drop. I THINK it loses it's leaves but I don't pay it all that much attention a lot of the time...but when I see it, it has presence, so here I am! Fingers crossed someone has half a clue ....

whatthehellia.zip

whatthehellia.zip

whatthehellia.zip

[Torsten]

Chorisia speciosa or some other mean mofo from the Bombacaceae family

[gecko]

The seeds are like beans in pods you say?

then just as a guess i'd say Erythrina sp.

check that out

Wavy pods, heavily armed trunk and branches... try E. acanthocarpa...

not the most common Erythrina sp. in Aust. but by no means rare.

A relatively cold tolerant species

also Ravenia rivularis in the backgound

[Vertmorpheus]

I was thinking Erythrina but the acanthocarpa doesn't get tall enough apparently , either way doesn't look quite the same but quite similar.It's not the cockspur or batswing coral tree either, I can spot those well enough.E. latissima looks like the closest so far, but older leaves on my specimen don't go all leathery they stay fairly tender, might be climatic though it is an a fairly exposed spot. E. lysistemon could be a goer too but the pod's look a bit dark. Might be just a slight thing though. E. caffra has a bit incommon too. I think the specimen I got pics of is in that in between stage , or maybe it just gets more N than anything in the online examples, certainly a LOT leafier than most of these things seem to be. Could be a shade issue though.

The Chorisia was a good idea based on the spikes and no flowers in the photos, we actually have one or two of those growing at work ... weirdo things! Apparently no two ever flower quite the same (macaboy's theory, anyway).No greenish trunk on this thing though and those nasty spikes are all over. chorisia's are a nice thing too though, the flowers never look quite real.

Eh, worth a shot! You were meant to tell me it's a long lost highly active remarkably safe and very marketable thing..not what I already thought it was ..... now I know it's probably something used to make you spew or have a miscarriage. I already had gin in the house!

cheers for that guys

GD

[Torsten]

ooops! sorry, I didn't read the bit about the pods, nor did I see the zip file

yep, definitely in the Fabaceae family. There is a similar Erythrina in Brisi BG. Two tall spiny ones I know are caffra [some forms] and perieri. I also have a spiny trunked one outside, but don't know it's name.

I don't think I have ever seen two tone erythrina seeds though

[foolsbreath]

That is cool!

Would love a seed or two if you found many ?

Would make a cool ornamental if pruned right!

[Ace]

Or a very nasty fence That'll keep them pesky kiddies outta the yard

[foolsbreath]

LOL

And the neighbors cat!

[Anodyne]

Ah noooooo!

I used to live near a huge one of those fuckers - ran into it one night while smashed.

(sorry, couldn't find a more appropriate smiley )

[Vertmorpheus]

Yep they're a scary arse tree thats for sure... what's really fun is pruning dead wood from the centre of it, WOOHOO! Much more fun than sitting down with a quiet pipe and a good book anyway. I was once introduced to the barberry plant by means of most of a red goony bag.... even more fun! We have some evil thing at work, white flowers, glossy dark green leaves, largish shrub, with these wicked branched forking opposite thorns...think sharp letter Y's running the length of the branches.. for some reason I nibbled some, methinks it made me sleepy for a while.

I am suspicious of enough things to figure any plant with that many thorns is trying to protect something! :D

Got a heap of beans, they might prefer nicking but I didn't... tucked em about 15mm deep into coco and kept it moist, they're the most aggressive looking sprout I've ever seen, thorny right from an inch or two tall. Take a little while to pop, hard coats, HBWR meets ned kelly. Once they're up they power along fairly nicely.

Maybe the next new thing in the field of BDSM Gardening let me know if anyone wants any, not sure how long they're viable for.

Some other Erythrina I found was described as having "red seeds with a black dot" or maybe it was the other way around... but whatever it was it didn't look too similar.it wouldve been on plantzafrica.com .... great how similar SA and Aussie plant life is... luckily they get all the dodgy animals with a taste for slow moving bipeds.

Least I have some idea now, I know what to call it when it decides to sneak up and attack me!

take care out there!

GD

[immanuel]

There were trees around my old house which looked exactly like that, the spikes where just smaller, about the size of my middle fingernail. Me and my friend always used to try and climb them as a challenge :D

Edited May 3, 2007 by mardybum