What is this tree and/or bush?






I have tried killing it several times. It grows out of the crack between the brick facia and the concrete box of my well head. I've cut it back many times, over probably 10 years. I don't want to use poison on it, because it is right next to my well. It's not a big annoyance. I know I could burn it out.

This is the first time it developed the little balls. I previously thought it was a black locust seedling. It has wicked thorns on it.

Keith

Trapperman turned the top and bottom pictures sideways.

Keith

The leaves and berries are edible.
Peppery, citrus.

Tordon is your friend... wouldn't need more than a couple drops.

You can get the Tordon RTU, think the generic is Pathfinder, at many farm stores. Just a couple of cuts with a hatchet and squirt some into the cut, 1 hack per 3" of trunk diameter. Another option is Triclopyr, Remedy is one of the trade names, with can be mixed at 25% in diesel and sprayed onto the trunk about 6-12" from the root collar up. This works well on trees with multiple stems like Chinese Privet.

Thanks for the identification.

It looks like the prickly ash tree has decent value. The seeds sell for $1.00 to $2.00 each. The seedlings are expensive. The bark and leaves have value too. It's one of only two species of plants the Giant Swallowtails caterpillars eat.

I was actually cutting common milkweed in one of my hayfields, right before taking the pictures of the prickly ash, to root cuttings of to.sell to the monarch lovers. The monarch lovers pay decent money for milkweed plants, which are mostly just a noxious weed in my cut hay for me.



I'll try propagating the prickly ash too. The monarch people will likely buy it too.

Keith

I had a mulberry next to my well, I cut it off and rubbed it with cream and salted it heavy and put a bucket over it.

Theres also a milkweed cult amongst archery hunters for wind indicators

I shook the fluff off of some milkweed seeds I shipped to Big Bob in a large plastic, cheese ball container. To winnow the fluff out, I just held the mouth to the wind and the fluff came swirling out in a steady stream. It worked very well and was fun to watch.

Do archery hunters mostly just pick their own milkweed pods, or do they buy them?

Because of the timing on getting my hay cut the last two years. I now have a lot of milkweed in one of my hayfields, easily several thousand plants. I would rather make money off it rather than have it take over.

Keith

I know there are a handful of bowhunters that like milkweed fluff for checking wind currents, but I can’t imagine anyone actually paying for it. If they have a place to hunt, they have a place to find milkweed. The stuff is everywhere in the fall.

I am surprised you did not know what this was.

You know how some of these city slicker hunters are...

Theres a rather limited market for it. Lot of people just give it away to other hunters or to the butterfly people.