Well, the images didn't post. Will try again tonight. Hope this isn't an indication of how my day is going to be.

If copied and pasted without the [IMG] into the search bar (or whatever that space is called at the top of the computer screen) it will take one to the photos. But I have no idea what the plant is. Someone else on the forum will most likely come up with an ID for you.

Greenbriar is what came to mind before I looked at your pictures (by pasting the links in a new window), but I don't remember the vines getting that large or the blooms.

When you Google 'Smilax rotundifolia' and look at the images, several show blooms though. Check them out and see if you think this is what you have.

I had Greenbriar at our old house and it was hard to deal with. I just basically clipped the shoots as low to the ground as possible because I couldn't pull them. Yours look large though, might be time for some tough action. Another Garden Web post (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/weeds/msg080723244269.html) shows a picture of the underground structure which explains why I could never pull it and says that Greenlight Cut Vine and Stump Killer will get rid of it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Greenbriar factsheet

Seeing the leaves in your flower photo, it's probably not Smilax rotundifolia, but it might be Smilax laurifolia or Smilax smallii. Just a guess.

Roselee, didn't we see something like that at the botanical gardens? A tree with huge thorns?

Yes, Kathy! I was thinking about that too. That was a Kapok tree from South America. I'm walking out the door to an app't and don't have time to do a search right now, but it is one to be considered. Hard to tell from the pictures above what diameter that thorny trunk is.

I googled Kapok tree and there is no one good site that describes them. They grow in Africa, Indian, and Indonesia as well as South America and are greatly valued by indigenous people whereever they are found. There are many species. The spotted thorny trunk on the photo provided by you, Stx49, looks right, but being a tropical tree it would seem unusual for it to survive in North Texas.

The stems of Smilex are spotted and thorny too, but are smaller of course.

Anybody else have any ideas? When they fully emerge amd bloom and leaves and flowers will help with the identity.

Kathy, do you remember the year and month we were at the botanical center together? I think I took a picture of the tree, but haven't found it yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kapok search on Google.

Kathy, just so you won't wrack you brain it was Mar. 08, but no pictures of the Kapok.

Maybe Kalopanax pictus - castor aralia?

If it's just growing out wild, my guess would be either Zanthoxylum clava-herculis or Aralia spinosa, both natives and both called Hercules club. I know the first one has pungent smelling leaves, so you could check that.

Good 'guess' Texasflip! Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, also called wild lime, is a caterpillar host for Giant swallowtail butterflies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zanthoxylum clava-herculis

Looks like a Prickly Ash to me but haven't seen one that big in a long time Zanthoxylum bungeanum or Zanthoxylum americanum a host to several butterflies
Usually if there is one there are dozens. Seeds blow everywhere and send babies from the roots

Here is a link that might be useful: Prickly Ash

I'm thinking Prickly Ash, too. I have a Tickletongue Tree out front (Zanthoxylum hirsutum) ~ I'll try my best to get some pics of it tomorrow and we can compare.

That sure looks like Hercules-Club to me. They have the big spines on the trunk and branches where Prickly Ash has smaller spines.

Here are the pictures of my Tickletongue Tree (aka Prickly Ash and Texas Hercules Club), which I believe is Zanthoxylum hirsutum. Maybe this will help rule it out or rule it in? Mine's spines and bark do look a bit different, but could that be because it's grown in different growing conditions or maybe a difference in age? Mine's about ten years old I think, maybe a few years younger, but no older. And is growing in the pasture where it doesn't get any special care.

A few more pics are here, bottom of the list.

The more I look at it, the more I think the OP's tree is in the same family, but is a different species.

Well, the prickly ash looks pretty close. I'd have liked to see mature leaves. I'm thinking it's some sort of Locust wood. The leaves look right and there's a wide variety of flowers (although I've never seen a green cluster variety).