1. Firethorn smells of sex, like hawthorn [Crataegus] … and both were therefore spurned by some Victorians, especially the Church [Addlestone, Surrey, June 2001].

2. Random recollections of plant-lore I have encountered over my life-time – mainly in south Wales. I am now almost 79-years-old …
Pyracantha (firethorn) … is spurned by church flower-arrangers, because it is associated with the Devil! [Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, October 2000].

Images:  main, cultivated, Crewkerne, Somerset, June 2014; inset, planted, beside Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Birmingham, September 2015.