Sorry about the poor focus. My eyesight is awful and I can't tell if it's in focus when I'm taking it.

Sure looks like it.......those ferocious thorns are hard to argue with!

For several years, I have been on a quest for a relative, Colletia paradoxa, aka anchor plant, So far my quest has proven futile but I live in hope.

When I first saw a Colletia at Isola Madre I wondered why anyone would grow such a ferocious looking plant. But then I read about the flowers being nicely fragrant. I was there in early September, it must not have been blooming yet.

for reference...

https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/colletia/

Interesting that the illustration of hystrix at that link is a plant in Yorkshire. It's clearly not hugely tender.

Well, not hugely tender by UK standards!

Interesting, I remember one of the Colletias being a somewhat regular offering of Woodlanders in South Carolina. Meaning at least one of them was very heat and humidity resistant...surprising for where they come from. But that's a generally observable pattern, because they come from a "trash plant" or "Weed plant" family, the Rhamnaceae, they have a better chance of surviving in alien climes. Same with Azara, in the willow family...at least A. microphylla doesn't mind my summers at all, even though it's from chilly Chile. Contrast with an 'exotic' plant family, the Proteaceae, mostly southern hemisphere, that have many members (especially alpine Proteas from ZA, and Embothrium) that cannot survive heat and humidity.