|
Mature Height
|
20 - 40
feet |
|
Mature Spread
|
20 - 40
feet |
|
Soil Type
|
Widely
Adaptable |
|
Moisture
|
Widely
Adaptable |
|
Mature Form
|
Round
Crown, Irregular |
|
Growth Rate
|
Rapid |
|
Sun Exposure
|
Full Sun |
|
Flower Color
|
Yellow,
Green |
|
Fall Color
|
Yellow |
|
Foliage Color
|
Green |
|
|
4-9 |
|
 |
$17.95 |
|
The Osage Orange tree,
Maclura pomifera, has bright green summer leaves with yellow
fall color. The Osage Orange bears an inedible fruit
resembling a woody orange. It is sometimes called the Hedge
Apple tree and Mock Orange and Bodark tree.
Native to the mid western and southeastern United States,
this species is also known as the hedge apple because it was
planted in thicket-like hedge rows before the advent of
barbed wire fences. The fruit is neither an orange nor an
apple, although it approaches the size of those fruits. In
fact, the bumpy surface of the fruit is due to the numerous,
tightly-packed ovaries of the female flowers.
The wood of osage orange was highly prized by the Osage Indians of
Arkansas and Missouri for bows. In fact, osage orange trees are
stronger than oak (Quercus) and as tough as hickory (Carya), and is
considered by archers to be one of the finest native North American
woods for bows.
In Arkansas, in the early 19th century, a good osage bow was worth a
horse and a blanket. A yellow-orange dye is also extracted from the
wood and is used as a substitute for fustic and aniline dyes in arts
and industry.
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|
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