Stephen Swain: The Thorn Tree's Tale

by Steve Swain
from The Punch, Sep/Oct '07

Many a tourist and some of you have asked me about the curious thorn tree that grows to one side of my front door on Bourbon Street. It may be hard to believe, considering its size, but I grew it from a seed I planted in 1988.

You French Quarter veterans might remember Larry, now passed away, who lived in the Valentine House at 1209 Bourbon Street. We called it the Valentine House because of the striking combinations of pink, red and lavender (but mostly pink!) paint that graced the Victorian facade of that painted lady camelback. In contrast to that sweetheart whimsy of a house, a spindly volunteer thorn tree with vibrant, glossy green leaves emerged from beneath the stoop. Some stray seed had lodged in that unlikely spot and grew to become the exotic, if prickly, sentinel at the very edge of the Valentine stoop. The tree was much admired for its strange beauty and provided quite a conversation piece for Mr. Larry.

However, that very placement of the seed proved to be its fatal undoing. Because the seed had found only a small crack in the masonry in which to germinate, the tree never developed a sufficiently strong trunk to support the head. A windstorm toppled the thorn tree with a clean break at the very base. The tree was removed and was not allowed to re-sprout.

I was lamenting the disaster to a neighbor at 1120 Bourbon Street, who promptly informed me that the mother thorn tree, covered with seedpods, was in his patio. I quickly procured several seeds and the rest is history.

The mother tree is no more, but mine is grown up almost to the top of my second story, though I trim it often. The Texas ebony, a close relation of the Mexican ebony, grows on the gulf coast of southern Texas and Mexico. Each spring and early summer the top is covered with puffy white flowers, similar to the mimosa style, which exude a strong, sweet licorice scent, attracting a bevy of honeybees. The tree is now covered with seedpods and vicious thorns, which discourage fence hopping. I just think of it as an organic glass shard wall topper. By the way, since those days, the former Valentine House has been repainted a very quiet, understated color.