
Shallow lateral roots surface with age and lift adjacent walks and drives, and old hedgerow trees often run roots along the former fence line well outside the dripline where nobody thinks to look. It also suckers from roots and stumps, so a trunk cut and left untreated regrows as a thorny thicket rather than simply dying.
Typically 35–50 ft tall with a wide, low, irregular crown, living well past 100 years. Removal runs high relative to its modest height because the wood is extremely dense and hard on chains, and the thorns slow down every single stage of the job from rigging to dragging brush.