Osage Orange
Maclura pomifera
Family: Moraceae
OTHER NAMES
horse apple, hedge, or hedge apple
French: bois d'arc
CHARACTERISTICS
A small deciduous tree in our region, usually topping out at 20’ though has the possibility of getting 50’ tall with age. The tree's mature bark is dark, deeply furrowed and scaly. Yellow fall color. Plants are dioecious (separate male and female plants). Flowers inconspicuous, but female trees will produce the strange chartreuse green fruits that look like strange oranges.
LANDSCAPE USE
Traditionally used as a hedgerow tree for security. Great screen. Medium-sized shade tree.
GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED
SUN full to part sun
WATER moderate
SOIL not picky, but well-drained
HARDINESS hardy to well below 0°F
BASIN high to mid zone
CONTAINER does moderately well in containers but will not attain full size
NUTRITION low
MAINTENANCE very little
ECOLOGY
The fruits are consumed by black-tailed deer in Texas, and white-tailed deer and fox. Loggerhead shrikes, a declining species in much of North America, use the tree for nesting and cache prey items upon its thorns.
ETHNOBOTANY
The Osage people use this tree in the making of clubs and bows. Before colonization, some of the movement of this species (thought to be a narrow endemic) was probably due to the value the tree possessed for bow-making. The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and flexible, capable of receiving a fine polish and very durable in contact with the ground. This plant was pushed by the USDA after the first dustbowl era in reaction to the need for windbreaks and erosion control. Many of the persistent plants at old ranches and farms are from that era. Osage orange wood is more rot-resistant than most, making good fence posts. Production of woodwind instruments and waterfowl game calls are common uses for the wood.
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
Native to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. A disjunct population also occurred in the Chisos Mountains of Texas.
TAXONOMY AND NAME
This plant is in the Moraceae, the mulberry family. There are 11 species of Maclura with a cosmopolitan distribution.
The genus Maclura is named in honor of William Maclure (1763–1840), a Scottish-born American geologist. The specific epithet pomifera means "fruit-bearing".
The "fruits" form whether or not the flowers get fertilized, just like the related figs do. They will lack, however, viable seed. Photo by hilliri, iNaturalist
Trunk details. Photo by Arb O'Retum, iNaturalist
The fruits are inedible, but they provide endless entertainment for humans and other creatures. Photo by Jennifer Ogle, iNaturalist
While inedible to people, other creatures find nutrition in the fruits of osage orange. Photo by Todd Fitzgerald, iNaturalist