Osage Orange

Tree  •  $11 to $15, multiple sizes, unsexed

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Height	35 to 60 ft
Spacing	25 to 50 ft
Sun Exposure	Full Sun
Soil Moisture	Moist to Medium Dry
Bloom Color	Green and Yellow
Bloom Time	June
Companion Plantings	Large-leaved Aster, Red Columbine
Special Attributes

Maclura pomifera

This fascinating tree is the only in its genus and is technically native to only a few states in the Southern Plains, although it has now naturalized elsewhere. It was once often planted to make hedgerows. Indigenous Americans also used the very strong wood in bow-making, hence the alternative common name Bowwood.

This is a medium-sized, stout tree with a broad crown that makes for good wildlife cover. While tolerant of part sun, branches in too much shade will decline and die off, so plant in full sun if possible. Osage Orange is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The bark is an attractive and deeply furrowed orange-brown color and is thorned on some of its branches. This plant will tolerate essentially any soil condition and would make a good specimen tree.

The most ornamental quality of this tree is its large yellow-green bumpy fruit, which appear by late summer on female trees. It is speculated that the seeds of this tree were once dispersed by large, now-extinct mammalian megafauna, which probably ate the large fruit. With the extinction of the megafauna by the end of the last ice-age, this plant lost its ability to spread to new areas, hence its small current native range – although its range was likely once much further north, as this tree does well in colder climates.

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