The Osage Orange Trees at My Farm
Autumn is the best time to see those warty, wrinkly looking fruits called Osage oranges, and this year, I have dozens of them growing at my farm.
Have you ever heard of an Osage orange? The Osage orange, Maclura pomifera, is actually not an orange at all, and is more commonly known as a hedge-apple, horse-apple, or mock-orange. Each one is about four to five inches in diameter and filled with a dense cluster of hundreds of smaller fruits - some say it even resembles the many lobes of a brain. For the most part, the Osage orange is considered inedible because of its texture and taste, but they're very interesting and fun to grow.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- I have beautiful healthy Osage orange trees along three sides of my North Maple Paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court. Here they are now as the leaves start to fall.
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- Before the leaves turn color, these trees are bold green. Properly maintained, these trees make a lovely natural hedge and fence and can grow up to 60 feet tall.
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- In winter, the trees must be pruned regularly to keep them in bounds. Without pruning, Osage orange trees grow in dense unruly thickets as multi-stemmed shrubs.
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- This is what they look like all pruned. We prune these Osage orange trees every couple of years.
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- Yesterday, the Osage orange trees were standing out in their autumn yellow. Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1800s, thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together. The goal was to grow them “horse high, bull strong and hog tight.” Farmers wanted them to be tall enough that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push it, and woven so tightly that a hog could not find its way through.
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- And they grow very fast for small deciduous trees – the shoots from a single year can grow up to three to six feet long. I planted many of the Osage trees at the farm about five years ago and they’re thriving.
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- The wood of the Osage orange tree is extremely hard and durable. On older trunks the bark is orange-brown and furrowed. The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very dense and is prized for tool handles, treenails, and fence posts.
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- The leaves are three to five inches long and about three-inches wide. They are thick, firm, dark green and pale green in spring and summer and then yellow in fall. There is also a line down the center of each leaf, with lines forming upside-down V-shapes extending from the center line to the edge of the leaf.
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- Here is a closer look at the yellow autumn leaves – so bright.
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- On this side of the paddock closest to my tennis court, the trees are in the process of turning. Osage oranges should be grown in full sun on well-drained soil. This tough, native plant can withstand almost anything when established – heat, cold, wind, drought, poor soil, ice storms, and rot.
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- Osage orange branches are armed with stout, straight spines growing from the leaf axils.
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- On this tree, one can see the many, many fruits on almost every branch. Osage Orange is actually a cousin to the mulberry tree.
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- Here’s a closer view of the fruits on the tree – this is the most prolific year ever for the Osage orange at my farm.
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- The Osage orange is dioecious meaning that there are both female and male trees; only female trees produce fruit. So far, we have one female tree laden with these warty looking fruits.
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- The name of the tree comes from the Osage tribe, which lived near the home range of the tree and could smell the orange-like aroma of the fruit after it was ripe.
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- The fruits are strong – they often persist on the tree after the leaves have fallen off.
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- Upon close inspection, the Osage orange is large, round, hard, and wrinkled or bumpy in texture.
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- Cut in half, the fruit exposes a pithy core surrounded by up to 200 small seeds that are much sought-after by squirrels. It is also filled with a sticky latex sap that some say repels insects.
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- By late fall, many fruits drop to the ground. Although these fruits are not edible to humans, they are not toxic to humans or other animals.
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- And looking past the Osage orange hedge into the pasture, one can see these handsome boys – Friesians Rinze, Bond, Hylke, Geert, and the Fell pony, Banchunch, grazing away. Do you have Osage orange trees where you live?
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