TO THE PIONEER PRAIRIE farmer, Osage-Orange was a godsend. With trees
too scarce to make fence rails and woven wire fence not available, Osage-Orange
hedges were the only practical way to fence the virgin land. Thousands of miles
of these hedges were planted and so common did they become that the very word
"hedge" became another name for Osage-Orange. This tree gets its name
from the similarity of its fruit (and to a certain extent the twigs and branches)
to oranges. Its original range was about the same as the Osage Indian tribe
in southwestern Missouri and the adjacent parts of Kansas and Oklahoma. Its
wood is hard, strong, durable, and resilient, and for those reasons it was widely
used for bows by the plains Indians. Early French trapper named it bois d'
arc (bodark) or bow wood. Pioneer women soon discovered that the bark of
the roots made an excellent yellow dye for their home-spun cloth.
Leaves are bright, shiny and oval
shaped. They are smooth and leathery to the touch.
Fruit resembles a grapefruit, being a yellowish-green, round, and an aggregate or grouping of many small individual fruits. Squirrels are about the only animals which eat the oranges. Both fruit and leaves have a white, sticky sap.
Twigs are slender, light orange in color and bear short, sharp thorns.
Mature bark has the appearance of bands wrapped around a pole, with wide furrows. It has an olive-orange color. The wood is very strong, bright yellow, turning dark upon exposure to air.
Today Osage-Orange has several important uses. Despite some clearing, there are still many miles of hedges serving as both fences and windbreaks. The wood of this tree is the most durable wood we have in Missouri. Millions of fence posts have been made from Osage Orange and many of these have remained sound for 50 years. In an area so often short of good cover, the hedges have also been a godsend to wildlife. Every farm boy (and a good many men) have hunted rabbits or quail and frequently squirrels which have sought shelter in these hedges. An Osage-Orange hedge should be rated as one of our most important wildlife areas.
