helen birch

I hate it!!

It is bendy so you can do a bit of weaving with it.
The spanish name Corona de Cristo denotes that they link it to the crown of thorns Jesus did wear when hanging on the cross, the stictly catholic natives of the Canary Islands (which are anyway euphorbicae cental) make much about that pious fairytale of the thornbush that was forced to hurt the brow but then forgiven, so it is sold to tourists sometimes with the tale on a flyer.

One night on Fuerteventura I ran in one of them lurking in a bowl on a yard wall and it touched my arm in several places just enough to make a bit red stripes not really drawing blood, but it gave me an awful rash much wider than the area where I had any scratchmarks, nasty itching and lasting for several days as to be remembered. Really not a very friendly species, or it just dislikes sinister heathens not believing Jesus did wear it's very own ancestor and gave it red blossoms. ;o)

BTW, in my country the plant linked to the folktale about the crown is sometimes Hawthorn and sometimes Blackthorn, depending on whom you ask, therefore the blossoms given to it are always white, not blood-red... anyways, the famous crown relic at Notre Dame, that was saved from the recent fire is a Baltic Rush, that has neither thorns nor does it bloom anything spectacular..... LOL