Scripture refers to several different varieties of thorns. Isaiah 7, according to Walker, is likely written about the buckthorn. It is a small tree or evergreen shrub, six feet or less in height. The buckthorn grows on hillsides. It is given two names and called both sunwayd and ajrayor. Rhammus is derived from "ram" meaning branching. This kind of shrub was used for making hedges, note: (Hosea 2:6 "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns.")
Old stems were used to build fires for cooking. (Psalm 58:9 "Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.") One species of buckthorn named reims gave the city of Rheims in France its name, and the city's coat of arms bears two branches of intertwined buckthorn (Walker).
Smith's Bible Dictionary says there are 18-20 different words for "thorns", "briers", and " thistles". Generally these words referred to prickly, thorny plants. The region of Palestine is home to an abundance of these plants, some very large, growing to the height of a man on horseback. Some are similar to those found in South America on the pampas. Others, like paliurus and tribulus spread over bare hillsides. A field can be totally covered with the pesky creeping spinous ononis. Prickly roses abound in the region also, according to Smith, and are found on the lower slopes of Hermon. More tropical valleys are home to the thorny lycium.
The "crown of thorns" (Matt. 27:29), some think was the Thamnus or Spina Christi. Its thorns however are so large that it would be virtually impossible to weave it into a crown. It could have been Cappares spinous, which is more flexible. Hasselquist ("Travels," p. 260) names the Arabian nabk. This variety has an abundance of sharp thorns, which would have inflicted wounds, is flexible and pliant, with round branches easily plaited into the form of a wreath.
Note: see also briers, thistles, thorns, crown of thorns, buckthorn
Isaiah 7:23-24 (KJV) And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. .... With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
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