A small spiny North American deciduous tree which bears inedible green orange-like fruit. Its durable yellowish-orange wood was formerly used by North American Indians for bows and other weapons.
Maclura pomifera, family Moraceae
Example sentencesExamples
- Probably one of the most common questions I hear is ‘Is it okay to make a bow from a wood other than yew or Osage orange?’
- It was very prosaic-no trees except a few around the farmhouse and a row of Osage oranges that farmers planted as a fence line 100 years ago.
- These extinct American herbivores once dispersed the seeds of such big-fruited plants as honey locust, Kentucky coffee tree, and Osage orange, all of which produce fruits that no native animal today regards as food.
- Another very interesting member of the mulberry family is the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera).
- Connie Barlow writes that the Osage orange tree is rare.