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[42itous]

What's this?

Comments

[42itous.livejournal.com]

A better view of the foliage:

[moechus.livejournal.com]

Did it have any thorns?

[42itous.livejournal.com]

It does have thorns. Not every branch has them, but what thorns there are are half-an-inch long and they share nodes with the clusters of leaves.

I'm guessing it's a kind of rose.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

That would be my guess also. Possibly a wrinkled rose or a pasture rose?

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Definitely not a wrinkled rose -- those are your basic beach roses, like in the Porter Square parking lot, and they seem to always be the same pink color; not mention that they have larger, more delicate petals.

Pasture roses have a little more variation in color, but I still don't see this deep, dark red. Then again, I'm looking at the first hundred or so results in Google Image, so I may be missing something.

[macfrode.livejournal.com]

Looks like flowering quince, I know the ones around here have started flowering.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

flowering hawthorn? (which in ornamental often does not have thorns)

does it smell incredible and dreamy?

#

[ahf.livejournal.com]

Quince I think as well. My mother has one by the back door, that one looks healthier than hers but otherwise the same.

[nosrednayduj]

Valerie votes for Quince as well. Also known as Japonica.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

That looks right -- thank you!

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's flowering quince (a.k.a. japonica).

Doesn't smell like much of anything -- or else my nose is stuffy.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

My guesses were based at a quick glance at Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers (1968 ed.), which doesn't mention quinces. I should get a new edition.

[macfrode.livejournal.com]

You can make a kind of quince jelly/butter out of the fruits in the fall but you have to add a lot of sugar they are pretty tart. it ends up tasting kind of like cranberries or rhubarb. Not really sure it is worth the effort, but YMMV. The flowering quince fruits don't get as big as the true quince, and in my experience the resulting butter doesn't get that pink color true quince does.