Maclura pomifera – Maclura aurantiaca – Osage orange – Cudrania –

Description

Maclura – Cudrania – There are about 15 species of usually thorny, evergreen or deciduous, dioecious trees, shrubs, or scrambling climbers in this genus. They occur in woodland and clearings, by roadsides, from Eastern Asia to Australia, and from South Central USA to South America. They produce alternate or spiraling simple leaves which are pointed ovate and are sometimes downy beneath. Both male and females bears racemes or clusters of small, spherical or cup shaped, usually yellow to green flowers, which are followed by on female trees by fleshy, spherical fruits, maturing to yellow or orange, which are surrounded by enlarges bracts.. Grow in a shrub border, as a windbreak, or as specimens. Grow in moderately fertile, well drained soil in full sun or partial shade. They tolerate a range of soils and some are drought tolerant. Prone to dieback, gray mold, rust, wilt, and scale insects. M. pomifera – M. aurantiaca – Osage orange – This rounded, deciduous tree frond from Arkansas to Central Texas grows 50′ feet tall and 40′ feet wide. It is thorny when young, becoming less so with age and has dark brown, fissured bark. It produces oval, pointed,,, dark green leaves, to 6″ long, turning yellow in autumn. In early summer it bears tiny, cup shaped, yellow-green flowers- the females in short racemes, the males in dense spherical clusters. Flowers are followed by on female trees by large,, wrinkled, fragrant yellow-green fruit, 3-5″ in diameter. Zones 5-9