| Photo Information |
Copyright: Tanja Almazan (sily)
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 238 W: 6 N: 391]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif) (1893) |
| Genre: Plants |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2006-09-21 |
| Categories: Trees |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2006-11-25 14:24 |
| Viewed: 1336 |
| Points: 6 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Another very interesting member of the mulberry family is the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera). 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 fruit is neither an orange nor an apple, although it approaches the size of those fruits. Like the breadfruit and jackfruit, it is a true multiple fruit composed of numerous separate ovaries, each arising from a separate female flower. In fact, the bumpy surface of the fruit is due to the numerous, tightly-packed ovaries of the female flowers. The black hairs on the surface of the fruit are styles, each arising from a separate ovary. The wood of osage orange was highly prized by the Osage Indians of Arkansas and Missouri for bows. In fact, osage orange is 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.
Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), a native North American tree with multiple fruits that are similar in structure to the breadfruit and jackfruit. The bumpy surface of the fruit is due to many tightly-packed ovaries, each with separate styles that appear like black hairs.
The fruits have a pleasant and mild odor, but are inedible for the most part. Although not strongly poisonous, eating it may cause vomiting. The fruits are sometimes torn apart by squirrels to get at the seeds, but few other native animals make use of it as a food source. This is unusual, as most large fleshy fruits serve the function of seed dispersal, accomplished by their consumption by large animals. One recent hypothesis is that the Osage-orange fruit was eaten by a giant ground sloth that became extinct shortly after the first human settlement of North America. An equine species that went extinct at the same time also has been suggested as the plant's original dispersal mechanism because modern horses and other livestock will sometimes eat the fruit.
Today, the fruit is sometimes used to deter spiders, cockroaches, boxelder bugs, crickets, fleas, and other insects. However, using the fruit in this fashion, at least for spiders, has been debunked. |
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