Editing Maclura pomifera (section)

== Description ==

===General habit===
Mature trees range from {{convert|40|to(-)|65|ft|m|order=flip}} tall with short trunks and round-topped canopies.<ref name=wynia/> The roots are thick, fleshy, and covered with bright orange bark. The tree's mature bark is dark, deeply furrowed and scaly. The plant has significant potential to invade unmanaged habitats.<ref name=wynia/>

The wood of ''M. pomifera'' is golden to bright yellow but fades to medium brown with [[ultraviolet light]] exposure.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.wood-database.com/osage-orange/ | title=Osage Orange &#124; the Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood) }}</ref> The wood is heavy, hard, strong, and flexible, capable of receiving a fine polish and very durable in contact with the ground. It has a [[specific gravity]] of 0.7736 or {{convert|773.6|kg/m3|lb/ft3|abbr=on}}.

===Leaves and branches===
Leaves are [[leaf arrangement|arranged alternately]] in a slender growing shoot {{convert|3|to(-)|4|ft|cm|-1|order=flip}} long. In form they are [[simple leaf|simple]], a long oval terminating in a slender point. The leaves are {{convert|3|to(-)|5|in|cm|0|order=flip}} long and {{convert|2|to(-)|3|in|cm|0|order=flip}} wide, and are thick, firm, dark green, shining above, and paler green below when full grown. In autumn they turn bright yellow. The [[leaf axil]]s contain formidable spines which when mature are about {{convert|1|in|cm|order=flip}} long.

[[Branchlet]]s are at first bright green and pubescent; during their first winter they become light brown tinged with orange, and later they become a paler orange brown. Branches contain a yellow pith, and are armed with stout, straight, axillary spines. During the winter, the branches bear lateral buds that are depressed-globular, partly immersed in the bark, and pale chestnut brown in color.

===Flowers and fruit===
As a [[Dioecy#In botany|dioecious]] plant, the inconspicuous [[pistillate]] (female) and [[staminate]] (male) flowers are found on different trees. Staminate flowers are pale green, small, and arranged in [[raceme]]s borne on long, slender, drooping [[peduncle (botany)|peduncle]]s developed from the axils of crowded leaves on the spur-like branchlets of the previous year. They feature a hairy, four-lobed [[sepal|calyx]]; the four stamens are inserted opposite the lobes of calyx, on the margin of a thin disk. Pistillate flowers are borne in a dense spherical many-flowered head which appears on a short stout peduncle from the axils of the current year's growth. Each flower has a hairy four-lobed calyx with thick, concave lobes that invest the ovary and enclose the fruit. [[Ovary (botany)|Ovaries]] are [[Ovary (botany)#Superior ovary|superior]], ovate, compressed, green, and crowned by a long slender [[style (botany)|style]] covered with white stigmatic hairs. The [[ovule]] is solitary.

The mature multiple fruit's size and general appearance resembles a large, yellow-green [[orange (fruit)|orange (the fruit)]], about {{convert|4|to(-)|5|in|cm|order=flip}} in diameter, with a roughened and [[Tubercle|tuberculated]] surface. The compound (or multiple) fruit is a [[syncarp]] of numerous small [[drupe]]s, in which the [[carpel]]s (ovaries) have grown together; thus, it is classified a multiple-accessory fruit. Each small drupe is oblong, compressed and rounded; they contain a milky latex which oozes when the fruit is damaged or cut.<ref name="Ghosts_Evo">{{cite book |last1=Barlow |first1=Connie |title=The Ghosts of Evolution, Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms |date=2002 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0786724897 |location=New York |page=120 |chapter=The Enigmatic Osage Orange |access-date=January 31, 2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0aQRscaW3QC&pg=PA120}}</ref> The seeds are oblong. Although the flowering is dioecious, the pistillate tree when isolated will still bear large oranges, perfect to the sight but lacking the seeds.<ref name=Keeler>{{cite book |last=Keeler |first=Harriet L. |title=Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them |url=https://archive.org/stream/ournativetreesa00keelgoog#page/n300/mode/2up |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1900 |location=New York |pages=258–262}}</ref> The fruit has a [[cucumber]]-like flavor.<ref name=Ghosts_Evo/>

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Maclura pomifera 001.JPG|Mature tree
File:Maclura pomifera 008.jpg|Mature bark
File:Maclura pomifera 002.JPG|Leaves
File:Maclura pomifera 003.JPG|Female inflorescence
File:Osage orange 1.jpg|Mature multiple fruit
File:Osage orange 2.jpg|Multiple fruit, sliced
File:Bodark fruit burrowed into by animal.jpg|Fruit burrowed into by seed eating animal
File:Maclura pomifera fruits on ground.png|Maclura pomifera fruits on ground
File:Westover Park (31060342845).jpg|Maclura pomifera tree with fruits on ground
</gallery>