Osage Orange
The Osage Orange tree, Maclura pomifera, has bright green summer leaves with yellow fall color. The Osage Orange bears an inedible fruit resembling a woody orange. It is sometmes called the Hedge Apple tree and Mock Orange and Bodark tree. Native to the midwestern and southeastern United States, this species is also known as the hedge apple because it was planted in thicket-like hedge rows before the advent of barbed wire fences. The fruit is neither an orange nor an apple, although it approaches the size of those fruits. In fact, the bumpy surface of the fruit is due to the numerous, tightly-packed ovaries of the female flowers. The wood of osage orange was highly prized by the Osage Indians of Arkansas and Missouri for bows. In fact, osage orange trees are stronger than oak (Quercus) and as tough as hickory (Carya), and is considered by archers to be one of the finest native North American woods for bows. In Arkansas, in the early 19th century, a good osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. A yellow-orange dye is also extracted from the wood and is used as a substitute for fustic and aniline dyes in arts and industry. ... more
Sugarberry The Sugarberry tree differs from common hackberry because the fruits are juicier and sweeter, bark is less corky, and leaves are narrower with mostly smooth margins. It has better resistance to witches’ broom and less winter hardiness. The trunk diameter ranges from 1-3' and the mature gray bark develops a warty texture. Female flowers give way to an often abundant fruit crop of round fleshy berry-like drupes maturing to deep purple. Fruits are attractive to a variety of wildlife, especially birds. Fleshy parts of the fruit are edible and sweet.
