Editing Maclura pomifera

{{Short description|Plant species in the fig family}}
{{use mdy dates |date=September 2022}}
{{redirect|Bois d'arc}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Osage orange
| image = Maclura pomifera2.jpg
| image_alt = 
| image_caption = Foliage and [[multiple fruit]]
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref>{{cite iucn |author=Stritch, L. |date=2018 |title=''Maclura pomifera'' |page=e.T61886714A61886723 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T61886714A61886723.en |access-date=15 October 2022}}</ref>
| status2 = {{TNCStatus}}
| status2_system = TNC
| status2_ref = <ref>{{Cite NatureServe|date=6 December 2024|id=2.134467|title=''Maclura pomifera'' &#124; NatureServe Explorer|access-date=23 December 2024}}</ref>
| genus = Maclura
| species = pomifera
| authority = ([[Raf.]]) [[C.K.Schneid.]]
| synonyms_ref = <ref name="POWO">{{cite POWO |id=148738-2 |title=''Maclura pomifera'' (Raf.) C.K.Schneid. |access-date=5 April 2025}}</ref>
| synonyms = {{Species list
 | Ioxylon pomiferum | Raf.
 | Maclura aurantiaca | Nutt.
 | Myroxylon abruptifolium | Stokes
 | Toxylon aurantiacum | (Nutt.) Raf.
 | Toxylon maclura | Raf.
 | Toxylon pomiferum | (Raf.) Sarg.
}}
}}

'''''Maclura pomifera''''', commonly known as the '''Osage orange''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|oʊ|s|eɪ|dʒ}} {{respell|OH|sayj}}), is a small [[deciduous]] [[tree]] or large [[shrub]], native to the south-central United States. It typically grows about {{convert|8|to(-)|15|m|ft|-1}} tall. The distinctive fruit, a [[multiple fruit]] that resembles an immature orange, is roughly spherical, bumpy, {{convert|3|to(-)|6|in|cm|order=flip|0}} in diameter, and turns bright yellow-green in the fall.<ref name="boggs">{{cite web |last1=Boggs |first1=Joe |title=Bois D'Arc |url=https://bygl.osu.edu/index.php/node/1884 |website=Buckeye Yard & Garden Online |date=October 15, 2021 |publisher=Ohio State University |access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref> The fruit excretes a sticky white [[latex]] when cut or damaged. Despite the name "Osage orange",<ref name="wynia">{{cite web|last=Wynia |first=Richard L.|title=Plant fact sheet: Osage orange, ''Maclura pomifera'' (Rafin.)|url=https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_mapo.pdf |publisher=US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service|access-date=25 October 2017|date=March 2011}}</ref> it is not related to the [[orange (fruit)|orange]].<ref name=IPM_IowaU>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2014/10-24/hedgeapple.html |title=Hedge Apples for Home Pest Control? |work=Horticulture & Home Pest News |publisher=Iowa State University of Science and Technology |date=October 24, 2014 |last1=Jesse |first1=Laura |last2=Lewis |first2=Donald |access-date=January 29, 2016}}</ref> It is a member of the [[mulberry]] family, [[Moraceae]].<ref name=MotherEarthNews>{{cite web |url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/osage-orange-tree-zmaz85zsie.aspx |title=The Osage Orange Tree: Useful and Historically Significant |magazine=Mother Earth News |date=March 1985 |last=Wayman |first=Dave |access-date=January 29, 2016}}</ref> Due to its [[latex]] secretions and woody pulp, the fruit is typically not eaten by humans and rarely by [[forage|foraging]] animals. Ecologists [[Daniel H. Janzen]] and [[Paul Schultz Martin|Paul S. Martin]] proposed in 1982 that the fruit of this species might be an example of what has come to be called an  [[evolutionary anachronism]]—that is, a fruit coevolved with a large animal seed dispersal partner that is now extinct. This hypothesis is controversial.<ref name="murphy">{{cite journal|last1=Murphy |first1=Serena |title=Seed Dispersal in Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) by Squirrels (Sciurus spp.) |journal=American Midland Naturalist |date=2018 |volume=180 |issue=2 |pages=312–317 |doi=10.1674/0003-0031-180.2.312 |s2cid=92491077 |url=https://bioone.org/journals/the-american-midland-naturalist/volume-180/issue-2/0003-0031-180.2.312/Seed-Dispersal-in-Osage-Orange-Maclura-pomifera-by-Squirrels-Sciurus/10.1674/0003-0031-180.2.312.short}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Sinnott-Armstrong |first1=Miranda A. |last2=Deanna |first2=Rocio |last3=Pretz |first3=Chelsea |last4=Liu |first4=Sukuan |last5=Harris |first5=Jesse C. |last6=Dunbar-Wallis |first6=Amy |last7=Smith |first7=Stacey D. |last8=Wheeler |first8=Lucas C. |date=March 2022 |title=How to approach the study of syndromes in macroevolution and ecology |journal=Ecology and Evolution |language=en |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=e8583 |doi=10.1002/ece3.8583 |issn=2045-7758 |pmc=8928880 |pmid=35342598|bibcode=2022EcoEv..12E8583S }}</ref>

''Maclura pomifera'' has many [[Common name|common names]], including mock orange, horse apple, hedge apple, hedge ball, monkey ball, pap, monkey brains and yellow-wood. The name ''bois d'arc'' (French, meaning "bow-wood") has also been corrupted into bodark and bodock.<ref name=GRIN>{{GRIN | access-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bobick |first1=James |title=The Handy Biology Answer Book |date=2004 |publisher=Visible Ink Press |location=Detroit, Michigan |isbn=1578593034 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKDrXqBpnYoC&pg=PA178 |access-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref><ref name=USDA_FS>{{cite web |url=https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_mapo.pdf |author=Wynia, Richard |date=March 2011 |title=Plant fact sheet for Osage orange (''Maclura pomifera'') |publisher=USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Manhattan Plant Materials Center |location=Manhattan, Kansas |access-date=December 16, 2015}}</ref>

== History ==
The earliest account of the tree in the English language was given by [[William Dunbar (explorer)|William Dunbar]], a Scottish explorer, in his narrative of a journey made in 1804 from St. Catherine's Landing on the [[Mississippi River]] to the [[Ouachita River]].<ref name=Keeler /> [[Meriwether Lewis]] sent some slips and cuttings of the curiosity to [[Thomas Jefferson|President Jefferson]] in March 1804. According to Lewis's letter, the samples were donated by "Mr. Peter Choteau, who resided the greater portion of his time for many years with the [[Osage Nation]]". (Note: This referred to Pierre Chouteau, a fur trader from [[Saint Louis, Missouri|Saint Louis]].) Those cuttings did not survive. In 1810, Bradbury relates that he found two ''Maclura pomifera'' trees growing in the garden of [[Jean-Pierre Chouteau|Pierre Chouteau]], one of the first settlers of Saint Louis, apparently the same person.<ref name=Keeler />

[[European colonization of the Americas|American settlers]] used the Osage orange (i.e. "hedge apple") as a [[hedge]] to exclude free-range livestock from vegetable gardens and corn fields. Under severe pruning, the hedge apple sprouted abundant [[basal shoot|adventitious shoot]]s from its base; as these shoots grew, they became interwoven and formed a dense, thorny barrier hedge. The thorny Osage orange tree was widely naturalized throughout the United States until this usage was superseded by the invention of [[barbed wire]] in 1874.<ref>Barlow, Connie. "Anachronistic fruits and the ghosts who haunt them". ''Arnoldia'' 61, no. 2 (2001): 14–21.</ref><ref name=wynia/><ref>Michael L. Ferro. "A Cultural and Entomological Review of the Osage Orange (''Maclura pomifera'' (Raf.) Schneid.) (Moraceae) and the Origin and Early Spread of 'Hedge Apple' Folklore". ''Southeastern Naturalist'', 13(m7), 1–34, (1 January 2014)</ref><ref name="smith">{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/osage-oranges-take-a-bough-105043145/?no-ist= |title=Osage Oranges Take a Bough|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|date=March 2004|page=35}}</ref> By providing a barrier that was "horse-high, bull-strong, and pig-tight", Osage orange hedges provided the "crucial stop-gap measure for westward expansion until the introduction of barbed wire a few decades later".<ref>{{cite book | last = Giannetto | first = Raffaella | title = The culture of cultivation: recovering the roots of landscape architecture | publisher = Routledge | location = Abingdon, Oxfordshire & New York | year = 2021 | isbn = 978-0367356422 }}</ref>

The trees were named {{lang|fr|bois d'arc}} ("bow-wood")<ref name=wynia/> by early [[France|French]] settlers who observed the wood being used for war clubs and bow-making by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]].<ref name=Keeler /> Meriwether Lewis was told that the people of the [[Osage Nation]], "So much ... esteem the wood of this tree for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundreds of miles in quest of it."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dillon |first1=Richard |title=Meriwether Lewis |date=2003 |publisher=Great West Books |location=Lafayette (California) |isbn=0944220169 |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0tnpUo_pgkC&pg=PA95 |access-date=January 30, 2016}}</ref> The trees are also known as "bodark", "bodarc", or "bodock" trees, most likely originating as a corruption of {{lang|fr|bois d'arc}}.<ref name=wynia/>

The [[Comanche]] also used this wood for their bows.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Comanche|last= Rollings |first= Willard Hughes |year= 2005 |publisher= Chelsea House Publishers |location= Philadelphia |isbn= 978-0-7910-8349-9 |page= [https://archive.org/details/comanche00roll_143/page/n35 25] |url=https://archive.org/details/comanche00roll_143|url-access= limited}}</ref> They liked the wood because it was strong, flexible and durable,<ref name=wynia/> and the bush/tree was common along river bottoms of the [[Comanchería]]. Some historians believe that the high value this wood had to Native Americans throughout North America for the making of bows, along with its small natural range, contributed to the great wealth of the [[Spiro Mounds|Spiroan Mississippian culture]] that controlled all the land in which these trees grew.<ref name=":0" />

=== Etymology ===
The genus ''Maclura'' is named in honor of [[William Maclure]]<ref name=USDA_FS/> (1763–1840), a Scottish-born American geologist. The specific epithet ''pomifera'' means "fruit-bearing".<ref name=USDA_FS/> The common name ''Osage'' derives from [[Osage Nation|Osage Native Americans]] from whom young plants were first obtained, as told in the notes of Meriwether Lewis in 1804.<ref name=smith/>

== 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>

== Distribution ==
[[File:Maclura pomifera range map.png|thumb|right|Natural range of ''M. pomifera'' in pre-Columbian era America.]]
Osage orange's pre-Columbian range was largely restricted to a small area in what is now the United States, namely the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] drainage of [[Oklahoma]], [[Texas]], and [[Arkansas]], as well as the [[Texas blackland prairies|Blackland Prairies]] and [[Oak savanna|post oak savannas]].<ref name=wynia/> A disjunct population also occurred in the [[Chisos Mountains]] of Texas.<ref name=USDA>{{Silvics |first=J D |last=Burton |volume=2 |genus=Maclura |species=pomifera |access-date=October 5, 2012}}</ref> It has since become widely naturalized in the United States and Ontario, Canada.<ref name=wynia/> Osage orange has been planted in all the 48 contiguous states of the United States and in southeastern Canada.<ref name=USDA/>

The largest known Osage orange tree is located at the [[Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial|Patrick Henry National Memorial]], in [[Brookneal, Virginia]], and is believed to be almost 350 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Tree Information |url=https://bigtree.cnre.vt.edu/detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=199 |access-date=November 18, 2022 |website=Virginia Big Trees}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The mystery of Patrick Henry's osage-orange: which enigma is greater; the age of the national champion or how it got to Virginia? - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+mystery+of+Patrick+Henry%27s+osage-orange:+which+enigma+is+greater;...-a0106141724 |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Osage-orange - VA |url=https://www.americanforests.org/tree/osage-orange-va/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=American Forests |language=en-US}}</ref> Another historic tree is located on the grounds of [[Fort Harrod]], a Kentucky pioneer settlement in [[Harrodsburg, Kentucky]].<ref>Allen Bush. [http://gardenrant.com/2012/10/the-undaunted-and-undented-osage-orange-2.html The Undaunted and Undented Osage Orange].</ref>

=== Ecological aspects of historical distribution ===
[[File:Maclura pomifera in Kansas winter.jpg|thumb|Evidence of a seed predator (February in Kansas).]][[File:Maclura pomifera fruit sprouting seeds.jpg|thumb|Mound of a single fallen fruit sprouting seeds (April in Illinois).]]
Because of the limited original range and lack of obvious effective means of propagation, the Osage orange has been the subject of controversial claims by some authors to be an [[evolutionary anachronism]], whereby one or more now extinct [[Pleistocene megafauna]], such as [[Ground sloth|ground sloths]], [[mammoth|mammoths]], [[mastodon|mastodons]] or [[gomphothere|gomphotheres]], fed on the fruit and aided in seed dispersal.<ref name=":0">Connie Barlow. [http://www.thegreatstory.org/anachronistic_fruits/index.html Anachronistic Fruits and the Ghosts Who Haunt Them] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106121158/http://www.thegreatstory.org/anachronistic_fruits/index.html |date=2007-01-06 }}. ''[[Arnoldia]]'', vol. 61, no. 2 (2001)</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/|title=The Trees That Miss The Mammoths|first= Whit |last=Bronaugh|year=2010|journal= American Forests|volume=115|issue=Winter|pages=38–43}}</ref> An [[equine]] species that became extinct at the same time also has been suggested as the plant's original dispersal agent because modern horses and other livestock will sometimes eat the fruit.<ref name=Ghosts_Evo/> This hypothesis is controversial. For example, a 2015 study indicated that Osage orange seeds are not effectively spread by extant horse or elephant species,<ref name="Anachronistic_fruits">{{cite journal|last1=Boone|first1=Madison J.|last2=Davis|first2=Charli N.|last3=Klasek|first3=Laura|last4=del Sol |first4=Jillian F. |last5=Roehm|first5=Katherine|last6=Moran|first6=Matthew D.|title=A Test of Potential Pleistocene Mammal Seed Dispersal in Anachronistic Fruits using Extant Ecological and Physiological Analogs|journal=Southeastern Naturalist|date=11 March 2015 |volume=14 |issue=1|pages=22–32|doi=10.1656/058.014.0109|s2cid=86809830}}</ref> while a 2018 study concludes that squirrels are ineffective, short-distance seed dispersers.<ref name="murphy" /> The claim has been criticised as a "[[just-so story]]" that lacks any empirical evidence.<ref name=":1" />

The fruit is not poisonous to humans or livestock, but is not preferred by them,<ref name=IPM_IowaU_2>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1997/10-10-1997/hedgeapple.html |title=Facts and Myths Associated with "Hedge Apples" |date=October 10, 1997 |last=Jauron |first=Richard |work=Horticulture and Home Pest News |publisher=Iowa State University |access-date=October 22, 2014}}</ref> because it is mostly inedible due to a large size (about the diameter of a [[Softball (ball)|softball]]) and hard, dry texture.<ref name=Ghosts_Evo/> The edible seeds of the fruit are used by [[squirrel]]s as food.<ref>Murphy, Serena, Virginia Mitchell, Jessa Thurman, Charli N. Davis, Mattew D. Moran, Jessica Bonumwezi, Sophie Katz, Jennifer L. Penner, and Matthew D. Moran. "Seed Dispersal in Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) by Squirrels (Sciurus spp.)." The American Midland Naturalist 180, no. 2 (2018): 312-317. Harvard</ref> Large animals such as [[livestock]], which typically would consume fruits and disperse seeds, mainly ignore the fruit.<ref name=Ghosts_Evo/>

==Ecology==
The fruits are consumed by black-tailed deer in Texas, and white-tailed deer and fox squirrels in the Midwest. [[Crossbill]]s are said to peck the seeds out.<ref name=Peattie>{{cite book |last=Peattie |first=Donald Culross |author-link=Donald C. Peattie |title=A Natural History of Western Trees |year=1953 |publisher=[[Bonanza Books]] |location=New York |page=482}}</ref> [[Loggerhead shrike]]s, a declining species in much of North America, use the tree for nesting and cache prey items upon its thorns.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Tyler, Jack D |title=Nesting Ecology of the Loggerhead Shrike in Southwestern Oklahoma |journal=The Wilson Bulletin |volume=104 |pages=95–104 |date=March 1992 |issue=1 |jstor=4163119 }}</ref>

==Cultivation==
''Maclura pomifera'' prefers a deep and fertile soil, but is hardy over most of the contiguous United States, where it is used as a [[hedge]]. It must be regularly pruned to keep it in bounds, and the shoots of a single year will grow {{convert|3|to(-)|6|ft|m|0|order=flip|spell=in}} long, making it suitable for [[coppicing]].<ref name=Keeler/><ref name=Toensmeier>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsh2CwAAQBAJ|title=The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security|last=Toensmeier|first=Eric|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|year=2016|page=230|isbn=978-1-60358-571-2}}</ref> A neglected hedge will become fruit-bearing. It is remarkably free from insect predators and fungal diseases.<ref name=Keeler/> A thornless male cultivar of the species exists and is vegetatively reproduced for ornamental use.<ref name=USDA/> ''M. pomifera'' is cultivated in [[Italy]], the former [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], [[Romania]], former [[Soviet Union|USSR]], and [[India]].<ref name=Elsevier_dict>{{cite book |last1=Grandtner |first1=Miroslav M. |title=Elsevier's Dictionary of Trees, Volume 1: North America |date=2005 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=0080460186 |page=500 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjc5ZYWtkNAC&pg=PA500 |access-date=January 30, 2016 |chapter=Maclura pomifera}}</ref>

== Chemistry ==
[[Osajin]] and [[pomiferin]] are [[isoflavone]]s present in the wood and fruit in an approximately 1:2 ratio by weight, and in turn comprise 4–6% of the weight of dry fruit and wood samples.<ref>{{cite journal|pmc=3774050|pmid=23772950|year=2013|last1=Darji|first1=K|title=HPLC Determination of Isoflavone Levels in Osage Orange from the United States Midwest and South|journal=Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry|volume=61|issue=28|pages=6806–6811|last2=Miglis|first2=C|last3=Wardlow|first3=A|last4=Abourashed|first4=E. A|doi=10.1021/jf400954m}}</ref> Primary components of fresh fruit include [[pectin]] (46%), [[resin]] (17%), fat (5%), and sugar (before hydrolysis, 5%). The moisture content of fresh fruits is about 80%.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Jeffrey L. |last2=Perino |first2=Janice V. |date=1981 |title=Osage orange (''Maclura pomifera''): History and economic uses |url=http://personal.evangel.edu/badgers/Web/Osage/History%20and%20Economic%20Uses.pdf |journal=[[Economic Botany]] |language=en |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=24–41 |doi=10.1007/BF02859211 |issn=0013-0001 |jstor=4254245 |s2cid=35716036 |url-access= |access-date=17 September 2024 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428214713/https://personal.evangel.edu/badgers/Web/Osage/History%20and%20Economic%20Uses.pdf |archive-date=28 April 2020}}</ref>

== Uses ==
[[File:Osage orange Maclura pomifera Top.JPG|thumb|upright|A tree [[felling|felled]] in 1954 exhibits little rot after more than six decades]]
[[File:Maclura trunk.jpg|thumb|upright| Typical bright yellow newly-cut wood]]

The Osage orange is commonly used as a tree row [[windbreak]] in prairie states, which gives it one of its colloquial names, "hedge apple".<ref name=wynia/> It was one of the primary trees used in President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s "[[Great Plains Shelterbelt]]" [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]] project, which was launched in 1934 as an ambitious plan to modify weather and prevent soil erosion in the Great Plains states; by 1942 it resulted in the planting of 30,233 [[windbreak|shelterbelts]] containing 220 million trees that stretched for {{convert|18600|mi|km}}.<ref>R. Douglas Hurt [http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~jsherow/hurt2.htm ''Forestry of the Great Plains'', 1902–1942]</ref> The sharp-thorned trees were also planted as cattle-deterring hedges before the introduction of [[barbed wire]] and afterward became an important source of fence posts.<ref name=USDA_FS/><ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.pantagraph.com/news/pfop-hedgerows-no-match-for-bulldozers-in-postwar-years/article_9a55ea00-9cdb-5d2a-b400-4d41abaa453d.html |title= Hedgerows no match for bulldozers in postwar years |newspaper= [[The Pantagraph]] |date= 2015-05-31 |access-date= 2016-04-18 |last= Kemp |first= Bill}}</ref> In 2001, its wood was used in the construction in [[Chestertown, Maryland]] of the schooner ''Sultana'', a replica of {{HMS|Sultana|1768|6}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sultanaprojects.org/abouthevessel.htm |title=Schooner Sultana |publisher=Sultanaprojects.org |access-date=2014-02-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313175015/http://sultanaprojects.org/abouthevessel.htm |archive-date=2014-03-13 }}</ref>

The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is dense and prized for tool handles, [[treenail]]s, fence posts, and other applications requiring a strong, dimensionally stable wood that withstands rot.<ref name=wynia/><ref name="Cullina_2002">{{cite book |last1=Cullina |first1=William |title=Native Trees, Shrubs, & Vines: A Guide to Using, Growing, and Propagating North American Woody Plants |date=2002 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=0618098585 |page=[https://archive.org/details/nativetreesshrub0000cull/page/136 136] |url=https://archive.org/details/nativetreesshrub0000cull |url-access=registration |access-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref> Although its wood is commonly knotty and twisted, straight-grained Osage orange timber makes good [[Bow (weapon)|bows]], as used by Native Americans.<ref name=wynia/> [[John Bradbury (naturalist)|John Bradbury]], a Scottish botanist who had traveled the interior United States extensively in the early 19th century, reported that a bow made of Osage timber could be traded for a horse and a blanket.<ref name=Keeler /> Additionally, a yellow-orange [[dye]] can be extracted from the wood, which can be used as a substitute for [[Old Fustic|fustic]] and [[aniline]] dyes. At present, florists use the fruits of ''M. pomifera'' for decorative purposes.<ref name="Grout" />

When dried, the wood has the highest [[heating value]] of any commonly available North American wood, and burns long and hot.<ref name=UMD_Ext_firewood>{{cite web |url=https://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_docs/publications/FS926WoodFuel.pdf |title=Heating with Wood |publisher=University of Maryland Extension |date=October 2010 |author=Kays, Jonathan |access-date=January 31, 2016 |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906222556/https://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_docs/publications/FS926WoodFuel.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=IowaU_Ext_firewood>{{cite web |url=https://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/publications/PDF_files/F-370.pdf |title=Firewood Production and Use |work=Forestry Extension Notes |publisher=Iowa State University Extension Service |date=August 1998 |author=Prestemon, Dean R. |access-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref><ref name=Utah_Ext_firewood>{{cite web |url=https://forestry.usu.edu/htm/forest-products/wood-heating |title=Heating With Wood: Species Characteristics and Volumes |author1=Kuhns, Michael |author2=Schmidt, Tom |publisher=Utah State University Extension |access-date=January 31, 2016}}</ref>

Osage orange wood is more rot-resistant than most, making good fence posts.<ref name=wynia/> They are generally set up green because the dried wood is too hard to reliably accept the staples used to attach the fencing to the posts. Palmer and Fowler's ''Fieldbook of Natural History'' 2nd edition rates Osage orange wood as being at least twice as hard and strong as white oak (''[[Quercus alba]]''). Its dense grain structure makes for good tonal properties. Production of woodwind instruments and waterfowl game calls are common uses for the wood.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://journalstar.com/sports/recreation/outdoors/a-block-of-wood-and-a-waterfowl-dream/article_9c5312c2-8b42-52ed-ba10-514e41fc7a65.html|title=A block of wood and a waterfowl dream|author=Joe Duggan|newspaper=Lincoln Journal Star|date=20 November 2018|access-date=16 November 2018}}</ref>

Compounds extracted from the fruit, when concentrated, may repel insects. However, the naturally occurring concentrations of these compounds in the fruit are too low to make the fruit an effective insect repellent.<ref name=IPM_IowaU_2/><ref>{{cite web|last=Ogg|first=Barbara|title=Facts and Myths of Hedge Apples|url=http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/pest/nebline/hedgeapple.htm|publisher=[[University of Nebraska-Lincoln|University of Nebraska Lincoln]]|access-date=11 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Nelson|first=Jennifer|title=Osage Orange – Maclura pomifera|url=http://web.extension.illinois.edu/dmp/palette/061022.html|publisher=[[University of Illinois]]|access-date=11 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117145938/http://web.extension.illinois.edu/dmp/palette/061022.html|archive-date=17 November 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2004, the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|EPA]] insisted that a website selling ''M. pomifera'' fruits online remove any mention of their supposed repellent properties as false advertising.<ref name="Grout">Grout, Pam. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OZVrxulVBtoC&dq=Maclura+pomifera+Monkey+balls&pg=PT208 Kansas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff.]'' Guilford, Conn: Globe Pequot Press, 2002.</ref>

===Traditional medicine===
The [[Comanche]] formerly used a [[decoction]] of the roots [[Topical medication|topically]] as a wash to treat sore eyes.<ref name=Dearborn_Ethnobotany>{{cite web |url=http://naeb.brit.org/uses/21738/ |title=Maclura Pomifera (search result) |work=Native American Ethnobotany Database |publisher=University of Michigan–Dearborn |access-date=December 24, 2015}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Maclura pomifera}}
*[http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/frame/mapo.htm ''Maclura pomifera'' images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1066106}}

[[Category:Maclura|pomifera]]
[[Category:Trees of Northern America]]
[[Category:Plants used in traditional Native American medicine]]
[[Category:Dioecious plants]]