Osage Orange

In fact, the bumpy surface of the fruit is due to the numerous, tightly-packed ovaries of the female flowers. 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. It is sometmes called the Hedge Apple tree and Mock Orange and Bodark tree. 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. The fruit is neither an orange nor an apple, although it approaches the size of those fruits. The wood of osage orange was highly prized by the Osage Indians of Arkansas and Missouri for bows. In Arkansas, in the early 19th century, a good osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. Native to the midwestern 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 Osage Orange bears an inedible fruit resembling a woody orange. The Osage Orange tree, Maclura pomifera, has bright green summer leaves with yellow fall color. ... details