Poncirus trifoliata growing in Southwest Arkansas - pics

[LBurford]

I have a friend that has a large thicket of Poncirus trifoliate growing on some of his land. They are growing on an old house place that was from the mid to late 1800's. They have formed an impenetrable thicket. There are literally thousands of them growing in this spot. Most of the fruit has fell to the ground this year.

[Bomand]

That is the way poncirus rolls. It will keep spreading. It does not have many enemies. Here we are sure that a buldozer and a hot for id the only effective way to control it. It is listed as an invasive plant in lots of places.....but I like it.

[dlhvac]

just have to hybridize it to a sweet orange with the same cold tolerance

[LBurford]

My friend that owns the land is threatening to use his bulldozer to get rid of them. Do they spread from the root or just from seed? I see clumps of small trees coming up where a fruit has been and every seed in the fruit has sprouted from just laying on the ground. 

[Bomand]

They spread from seed and/or roots. If you leave parts of roots in the ground they will be back to haunt you...............

[LBurford]

I was thinking about digging up a large one and transplanting in my yard. I may need to rethink that.

[Bomand]

I did what you are thinking. Dug up a large one, planted it in my yard. It make all the seed I can use for rootstock. It smells great when its blooming. It is laden with 4 inch thorns and really interesting plant. I keep it pruned so it does not get out of control. I have grafted Flying Dragon on it and several other rootstocks. It is an all purpose rootstock tree and an all around interesting specimen. If you do this: Wait till the poncirus has shed its leaves and is dormant. Dig it up and replant in your chosen location. Water it good. In Spring, if you have dug up a tree old enough to bear fruit ye shall be blessed with fragrant blooms and golf ball size fruit that will turn yellow/orange about September. You can then graft onto it, get seed for rootstock and enjoy the tree. Keep it pruned like you want it.

[Ilya11]

It smells great when its blooming.

Are you sure that it is a pure poncirus? For me poncirus smells very faintly if any. Nothing to compare with true citrus.

[Bomand]

Yes. I have found that poncirus varies in its blossom intensity and smell. At times during the day the blossom smell is intense. Different groves of poncirus also emit blossom smell of various intensity.  To me the smell of the blossoms and the fruit are two different items. I love the smell of the fruit.....do not know of anything else that smells exactly like it. Like citrus blossom intensity varies with many factors. Too bad poncirus fruit does not taste like it smells.

[kumin]

Ripe Poncirus fruits have a pleasant scent that is concentrated when confined within a room. I have not experienced any floral aroma to this point, perhaps there's clonal variation? One of my hopes is that the F2 citrange hybrids I'm growing will have a pleasant floral scent. Some of the citrandarins I grew in the past did have floral scents.

[Ilya11]

I perceive poncirus flower smell only at the peak of blossoming under the hot weather conditions.
Even than this smell  is something like the odor of an old candy box.
I have not noticed much difference between poncirus varieties available here.

[citrange]

Here in England I can detect no flower smell at all, but I do like the smell of the fruit.
I have given a few talks about citrus to local garden societies and carried out an experiment with the fruit which was passed round those present.
Most people agreed that the fruit smell was vaguely citrusy and definitely not unpleasant.
However, roughly 10% found the smell completely horrible - about equivalent to dog poo.
One lady complained bitterly that she couldn't get the smell off her fingers and I had ruined her lunch!
There are definitely two types of nose when it comes to this aroma.
And a couple of people couldn't make up their minds. They said they could detect both a nice smell and a nasty smell at the same time.

[Citradia]

My poncirus flowers have no scent at all.