Found two trees in the wild in central Arkansas. The small one is pictured (easier to get to and get pictures of ;) and the other is about 14-16" diameter. Both are growing on the side of a hill. A few of the cone shaped, cork like protrusions on the trunk have a thorn like center. No leaves this time of the year but the trunk is so unique and the thorns so small and blackberry or rose like that I figured it may be an easy one for you to identify. My books on southern trees have nothing like this, the thorns on trees around here are huge. :( Thanks!
Possibly Chorisia speciosa. Common name Kapok tree.See... http://images.google.com/imgres?img...microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7SUNA&sa=N Just read it has been renamed . Now Ceiba speciosa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_borracho
Thanks for the help! Yep, it is Zanthoxylum clava-herclis. The one pictured is the youngest one but it didn't have any hint/tint of green nor the older one the swollen or bottle shaped trunk but when mature the cones on the bark of both trees sure seem to look alot alike (well to me anyway) and having to shrink the images probably didn't help you identify them much. I thank you most kindly for your time.
It is also called "tickle tongue" or "toothache tree". Place a sliver of the bark in you mouth for a few minutes and you will see why.
