The Trifoliate Orange is also used at Fort Knox as a natural hedge. The danged plant will nail you if you stand within 6 feet of it;) I've also seen it on SC plantation elite sites. We've tentatively identified a gardener's house in VA for a plantation super-elite that has it.

Lyle Browning


On Mar 24, 2011, at 2:34 PM, Linda Derry wrote:

> D. Babson,
> 
> It could be osage orange.  In the antebellum town cemetery at Old Cahawba
> (an abandoned town near Selma Alabama) osage oranges (Maclura pomifera)
> were planted as a protective fence inside a ditch that surrounded the town
> cemetery. (according to newspaper accounts)  Only one of what must have
> hundreds or thousands of these trees survives today at this long abandoned
> cemtery.
> 
> 
> However, I suspect that the wished for plantings in our small family
> cemeteries were the evergreen shrub/tree that locals here currently call
> cherry laurel, Philadelphus coronarius .  It is sometimes called "English
> dogwood."  
> 
> There is also a Trifoliate Orange, but I suspect that it didn't become
> popular here until after the Civil War.  It too is a good hedge plant, but
> was oringally meant to have real oranges grafted onto it.   I always find
> this plant in rural African-American cemeteries, and you can't help but
> think of the "crown of thorns" when you look at its tangled barbs during the
> winter.   
> 
> Linda Derry
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David W
> Babson
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:06 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Vegetation and Historic Sites
> 
> Are the "Wild Oranges" osage orange?  Often used as a hedge and along
> roadsides in Kansas and other Plains states (as at Ft. Riley), but I would
> not pick it for a grave border--it grows up into a dense thicket.  It would
> serve to hide the grave, if that's a concern.
> 
> D. Babson.
> 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Derry
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:45 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Vegetation and Historic Sites
> 
> Smoke,
> 
> Doesn't poison Ivy thrive more in disturbed areas of the forest? If so ,
> large patches could indicate human occupation.
> 
> The so called " cedar trees" don't help us much here in the old Cotton Belt,
> as it naturally takes over in prairie, if the grassland is not allowed to
> burn on a regular basis.  Instead magnolias and many any other "ever green"
> tree or shrub are used in graveyards.  Something called "Wild Oranges" is
> often mentioned in wills as something antebellum folk wanted planted around
> their graves.  Of course , the actually species they are referring to is
> debatable.
> 
> 
> Linda Derry
> Site Director
> Old Cahawba
> 719 Tremont St.
> Selma, AL 36701
> ph. 334/875-2529
> fax. 334/877-4253
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Smoke
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 11:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Vegetation and Historic Sites
> 
> The yellow daffodils you refer to are the same as our Jonguils / Day
> Lillies.  First thing out in the spring, then the pretty yellow of the
> Forsythia bush (sometimes at old house sites) and then the redbud.  We
> have Poison Ivy as the the most common ground cover all over the
> forest.  Nobody here but city folk would ever wear shorts.  I have
> heard tales that the old timers would have an eastern red cedar tree
> for each member of the family all picked out as their "coffin tree"
> but can not confirm with any historical records.  It is also a very
> common tree here in both the towns and forests.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 11:10 AM, Linda Stine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Thanks everyone for the info!  I see the same patterns and can add that
>> later farmsteads often have small yellow daffodils that come out really
>> early, also "cotton tuffs" that are an early version of spirea I think
> which
>> are white or pink flowered bushes, and the obligatory row of "tiger
> lilies"
>> in bright orange up the path or drive.  I also see a lot of nut and fruit
>> trees.  Anyone really know why cemeteries seem to always have red cedars?
>> Soil conditions?  Deliberate planting?  LFS
>> 
> --
> Smoke Pfeiffer
> 
> Laws do not represent either reason or justice.
> They represent force.