PlantFiles: Japanese Hardy Orange, Bitter Orange
Poncirus trifoliata 'Flying Dragon'

I have the species plant, not the cultivar 'Flying Dragon'. I have 3 trees that are 15 feet tall or so, and this year produced about 6 five-gallon buckets full of mini-oranges! Yes, they are edible. We made kind of a lemonade out of them one year. It tasted kind of like lemon and kind of like grapefruit. The only problem is the peels are kind of gummy and make your knife and cutting board VERY difficult to clean. I love these trees, and get many compliments on them. The foliage is beautiful, and they look pretty amazing covered with oranges way up in Virginia!

So this is an orange fruit plant that has thorns....?

Several years ago I planted GRAPEFRUIT seeds and the resulting trees grew to be about 3 feet tall (they eventually died -- the pots were on my windowsill). The stems and leaves were greeen and glossy.

BOTH trees had LOOONG thorns -- I've been to Florida a number of times and have NEVER seen a grapefruit tree with thorns-- so, in my case, what happened with my grapefruit trees -- were they related to this thorny orange tree, or did they have recessive grapefruit genes???

I planted a hedge of the Hardy Orange about twenty years ago and for the first decade kept it sheared at about four feet high. My mistake was that I missed a couple shearings and it has become so intertwined it's nearly impossible to cut without getting stabbed in the process. This plant could truely stop a vehicle from penetrating a boundary line, if that was your intent. Incidentally, the fruit is great for holiday decorations and the mild citrus scent given off when brought in the home is real plus. Also, these fruit self seed very easily.

Could there be a better plant for Citrus buffs with an eye for the bizarre? A cold hardy orange who's contorted form comes true to seed (even the thorns are curved) and also has spectacular fall color (here in OR Z8b I get bold reds and yellows) If the standard Poncirus is too intimidating for you this twisted little dwarf might be just right! As yet, I have had no problems with them.

Although a slow grower for me, it is a really neat plant. Just be careful of those thorns!

This plant is very often used as the root stock to keep other citrus plants smaller.

This plant is not poisonous. In fact, juice can be made from the fruits - be sure to add sweetener and some extra water. Thorns are long and curved and the branches tend to grow in a corkscrew habit. Fruits are very aromatic. Great in zones 6 - 9.

I found one of these growing behind my fenceline. I live in northern Georgia and was a bit surprised to find what I thought was a wild orange growing in my woods. It has huge thorns. The fruit appears to grow on branches which have no leaves or have lost their leaves. Branches with leaves have no fruit and have smaller thorns that the fruited branches. I cut one of the fruits and found lemon like pulp and seeds. The aroma made me want to eat it! It smelled very citrusy and sweet. It has a soft fuzz on the rind, somewhat like a peach. I have no idea where it came from, but I think there may have been one of these growing in the yard of a neighbor when I was in my early teens (more than 20 years ago!). I have done a web search and found several articles on this plant. Some say it is used in oriental medicine and others say it is poisonous.