Plant of the Week - The Barbed Wire Tree

"Osage Orange

Maclura pomifera

Maclura pomifera is a paradox plant. It is one of the most widely-planted trees in North America, especially on the plains, yet it has no commercial value as timber, lumber or even pulpwood. Instead, it was used to make high, think, thorny termite- and rot-resistant hedgerows. It did such an admirable job as hedging material, it provided the inspiration for the barbed wire fence that eventually replaced it.

Maclura pomifera fruit is known alternately as "Osage orange" or "hedge apple" and is inedible to almost every animal except squirrels. Bois d'arc (Americanized into "bodock") and bowwood are common names that hint back to the native American Indian's use of the wood to make bows.

The fruit is often used as a natural insect repellent, especially for cockroaches and crickets, as well as a dye."

quoted from Dave's Garden E-Newsletter, January 9, 2012

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The Osage orange is native to the mid-western and southern United States. A mature tree can be 40 feet / 12 meters tall and wide. It is not an orange at all, but part of the mulberry family.

The strong branches make a think interlocking tangle. The thorns are only 1 - 2 inches / 2.5 - 5 cm long, but they are stout, sturdy, and sharp. These features plus planting Osage orange in tight rows made the perfect impassable natural fence.

The specifications of the ideal farmstead hedgerow?
"Horse-high, bull-strong, and hog-tight."

The fruit is unusual and large. It matures to between 3 - 5 inches / 7.6 - 12.7 cm in diameter, and the rind is bumpy and lumpy.

The inside of the fruit is something like a meaty kiwi - plus milky sap. The Osage orange fruit isn't edible for humans, but squirrels, deer, horses and other cattle seem to like it. And they are welcome to it.

When the fruit ripens it falls off the tree. If you ever find yourself strolling under an Osage orange tree in autumn, be sure to bring your hard hat. The fruit shares some of the characteristics of the wood; it is heavy and hard.

Not the most desirable tree for the home landscape.

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The wood from the Osage orange was actually highly valued by the American Indians, specifically the Osage Indians from Arkansas and Missouri. Stronger than oak and tough as hickory, bows made from Osage orange were considered the finest and the best. If you were in the market for a bow in the 19th century you would need to be prepared to trade a horse and a blanket.

Having no commercial value isn't quite entirely true, at least in terms of being commercially grown for any specific purpose. But my Google Image search showed that in addition to bows, Osage orange wood is used to make a host of things: handles for knives, hatchets, and nun-chucks (yes, really!), rifle stocks, bowls, vases, canoe paddles, recorders, guitar faces (sorry if wrong terminology), snare drum binding, clothing buttons, and boomerangs.

Apparently dyes are still made from the Osage orange fruit. The resulting color is orange in various hues, but it is also used to make a variety of colors when applied over pre-dyed fiber.

all photos are from Google Images