What should I do with my Osage orange tree?
When I brought the two trees home, I soon discovered these weren’t your ordinary orange-tree variety. My eagerness had overwhelmed my sense of hearing. Words that my friend had used in describing the tree, like “gnarly,” had run right past me at first, but now rang loudly. The tree had glossy, lance-shaped leaves and short, stout thorns that gave it a strong woodsy look.
Gradually, the name crept back into my memory. It was an Osage orange, a gnarly tree that doesn’t produce any fruit worth cultivating.
The name comes from the Osage Indian tribe, which lived near the tree’s home range in East Texas, and from the orange-like aroma of the ripened fruit.
Found today primarily in a limited area centered on the Red River Valley in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, you can also find them sparingly in the wild throughout Texas.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Osage orange was the most cultivated tree in the country. They are easy to spot in the fall after the leaves have dropped. Large, dense, green-yellow wrinkled ball-shaped fruit, sometimes called hedge apples that can measure up to 6 inches in diameter, gaudily hang like ornaments from the arching branches.
Although the fruit is edible, it’s a tough bite. The fruit contains a pithy core surrounded by up to 300 small seeds, each of which is encased in a slimy husk. Squirrels, however, forage for its much-desired seeds.
The trees would provide excellent wildlife habitat including nesting sites and roosting cover for many species and has an attractive bright-yellow fall color. Many consider these trees more picturesque than beautiful because of their strong form, texture and character which only becomes more intense with maturity. The thorny branches, however, might make pruning difficult and could puncture tires or pierce through sneakers. Plus, the large fruit could be dangerous if you happen to be underneath them when they fall.
Osage orange is one of the heaviest woods in North America and rates at the top for resistance to weathering. The wood is strong and so dense that it will neither rot nor yield to the attacks of termites or other insects for decades. It also makes great firewood.
I just don’t know what I’ll do with my two gifted trees. One thing is for sure — I won’t be biting into a fresh orange from my yard anytime soon.
Delgado is a Texas Master Naturalist. She and Scott are members of the Highland Lakes Birding and Wildflower Society and the National Audubon Society. E-mail them at viva.dana@yahoo.com.