osage orange

Family

Moraceae

Scientific Name

Maclura pomifera

Other Common Names:

bois d' arc

hedge apple

and bow-wood

bodark

hedge

horse-apple

mock-orange

yellow wood

Synonyms (former Scientific Names):

Ioxylon pomiferum

Toxylon pomiferum

Leaves

d. Leaves are deciduous, simple, and alternate or are in clusters at the end of short spurs. Their shape ranges from broad-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, rounded to subcordate at the base broadly cuneate or acuminate at the apex. Leaves are 2 to 5 inches (in.) long and 0.75 to 2.5 in. wide and have entire margins. Leaf blades are dark green, smooth and waxy above; paler green with a few hairs beneath. The color turns translucent yellow in the fall.

Identifying Characteristics

Osage orange belongs to the Moraceae, or mulberry family. The name Maclura pomifera comes from William Maclure (1763 " 1840) an early American geologist; and pomifera which means fruit-bearing for the large fruits that it produces on the female trees. It is a small to medium size tree 36 to 65 feet tall, with deeply furrowed bark and thorny branches. The trunk is usually short and divides into several prominent limbs with upward arching branches. The root system is diffuse and covers large areas with its lateral spread.

Flower Seed Head

Osage orange trees are dioecious and wind pollinated with flowers appearing in mid-May to June, after leaves. Staminate (male) flowers are globular or in short cylindrical clusters, green, hairy, with 4 stamens and large yellow anthers, but no petals. Pistillate (female) flowers are in dense, globular clusters, 0.75 to 1.0 in. diameter at the base of a leaf.

Seed Fruit

The fruit or Hedge ball is produced in September and is a multiple fruit consisting of many 1-seeded druplets fused into a globose, yellow-green structure approximately 3 to 5 in. in diameter. Female trees may start to bear fruit at about 10 years old. The individual oval shaped seeds are imbedded in the fleshy calyx and are 0.3 to 0.5 in. long. Seeds are initially cream colored, but will turn brown with age and exposure to air

Growth Habit

woody bush or tree

Thorns or Spines

present

Dominant Flower Color

green

Leaf Hairs

has hairs

Leaf Shape

Varies:

round,

heart,

lance,

oval

Leaf Arrangement

alternate

Leaf Margin

entire

Leaf Structure

simple

Leaf Stalk

shorter than leaf

Stem Cross Section

round or oval

Milky Sap

present

Life Cycle

perennial

Ochrea

not present

Plant Type

Tree