Thank you Vall3fam! Nice job. Yes it appears to be the Barringtonia asiatica. Very interesting. I will add the link "alternative medicine" article that I'm reading now on it. http://alternative-medicine.knoji.com/poison-tree-barringtonia-asiatica-an-amazing-fruit-that-cures-many-diseases/

If you want a wisteria, you should get a wisteria. There is a wisteria developed for zone 10 called the Blue Moon Wisteria. It's sold by Stark Brothers for $15.99 as of July 2017. (I discovered your post when I was trying to find one for my zone, also 10, in the foothills of southern California--rocky, sandy soil with ugly, hot weather and some cold snaps. Finally decided I would build the pergola first, but I have to find out if it has to be permitted. If it must be, I'll put in an informal cedar trellis instead. *ugh*) Keep in mind, the zone maps have to do with FREEZING temperatures. It's not carved in stone, and many plants that are NOT exposed to freezing (or non-freezing, as with the higher zones like 10, will be just fine--not like apples that need freeze hours. You need to know your plants (& area). If you're afraid that your plant will freeze, you can purchase gardening cloth to cover your plant in winter or while getting it started. The right kind will protect your plant from animals, certain amounts of freezing, and still ALLOWS water and sunlight through for very little $. (Short plants=cover gently and stake down.) Just don't use plastic (touching your plant). Think of your plastic wrapped fridge veggies--it lets cold right through. You can use a blanket or cotton sheet in emergency. Even a halogen lamp can save a small tree--just don't put the blanket/sheet over the lamp--hah!..fire! Be prepared. (Most folks won't go to the trouble of buying a can of anti-transpirant. [seals the plant from freezing for 3 months.] Also, some areas have their own personal weather because of land formations, building walls, even boulders, fences, & some plants or trees. Properly sheltered, plants can thrive. You could have perfect zone, but put a plant in dead soil (low microbes/fungi), under-water, over-water, etc., and it could die. The gov'mt is giving us an "odds" chart--does it include freak weather? I lived with small Passifloras in my dad's land around the farm. Never knew they grew as a big vine till this site. Loved them for their exotic beauty. All dad saw was "weeds." Sorry for the epistle, but Good luck y'all! P.S. Halfwaythere, for the cables you are considering using, there's a website that goes into rust, the breakaway strength & will lead you into stainless steel, coated, etc. (thecableconnection.com

Hi All, Thanks for your responses! Well, the Trumpet Vine has not been "attacked" lately. So that is okay. We stopped hanging suet cakes high up in the trees out front for the summer so no report there. We think the Coons were the thieves in the night there... But we do know what was digging at and around the bird feeding skid....my husband saw them. Rats. I did not like this one bit and was upset.....husband stopped feeding the birds right away. Filled the holes, cleaned up all the feed he could and set the skid up against the Hemlock. It wasn't long until he didn't see any Rats. We read some place that they will move on when the food supply stops and it seems they did. We used to have many feral cats that came thru here but our cat club has been getting them into the tnr program and rarely see any which is really a good thing. I don't know what we will do this winter about feeding the birds. We have a big feeder on the deck that we set up for winter so we can see the birds close up. Will they return right away and the problem will be back? We live in a nice neighborhood and I am sure the neighbors would be very unhappy if they knew we had this problem. Guess it is a wait and see situation right now....thanks again for your ideas! Shirley

I looked up datura on wiki and they said no one knew if they were native because they are all over the globe and have been for centuries. I then read somewhere else that that a few were native to North America .I'm growing d.meteloides now and my backyard is gated so don't have to worry about kids eating my Devil's Trumpet.Thanks for showing me the South American purple solanums.My zone 5b climate probably won't allow me to grow them as perennials.I'm growing Mashua tubers for the first time this year.They are just about ready to start climbing the trellis.I have some Scottish Flame Flower vine seeds in the fridge that I want to germinate for next year but they require a lot of special care when starting.Because of our brutal winters I will have to lift the traeopaleum tubers in the fall.It would be nice to have the more mild winters here like they have in the U.K. but I just have to work with what I have here.There are a lot of very cool plants that grow in Chile.I've thought about growing oca,the large tuberous oxalis.I will definitely look into the Chilean purple solanums also.I got a couple of the tallest buddleias I could find this year.They are Groovy Grapes and they aren't sterile which is good because here I don't have a problem with to many seedlings.I'm lucky if I find one or two. The pictures of buddleias I see in the U.K. makes me envious.They grow huge there.I don't think my datura is a native species,but it's fragrant.I'm trying to go totally native so I'll try growing a native datura next year.I like using them in a bare spot or corner as a specimen plant because they are big and rough looking,but have large beautiful flowers.A few Native American tribes know how to use datura for spiritual enhancement in a safe way.In South America shaman mix datura with other plants to make mind opening potions.There is a weed I come across once in a while that's a solanum.It grows about a foot or two and is covered in sharp thorns.It has a creamy yellow flower.It's kind of pretty in a bizarre kind of way but I usually pull it out eventually so it doesn't seed itself.