Maclura pomifera
Milk orange tree ( Maclura pomifera )
The milk orange tree ( Maclura pomifera ), also called Osagedorn, is a species of the genus Maclura in the family of the mulberry family ( Moraceae ).
- 3.1 Breeding Forms
Description and Synecology
Appearance and leaf
Maclura pomifera grows as a deciduous tree and reaches stature heights of up to 15 meters and crown diameter of up to 12 meters. The bark is dark brown and cracked. The spine reinforced branches form an open and irregular tree crown. The leaves are oval and dark green.
Inflorescence and flower
Maclura pomifera is dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ), the female and male flowers are thus formed at different individuals. The flowering period begins shortly after the Laubbbildung and lasts from April to June. On long Blütenstandsschäften on the top sheet scar of the previous year are the male inflorescences, which are racemose and 2.5 to 3.8 cm long. In the axils of the leaves, the female inflorescences are formed. The female flowers are densely arranged in capitate inflorescences, which have a diameter of about 2.5 cm. The unisexual, greenish to yellow flowers are cruciform. Pollination is accomplished by the wind.
Inflorescence and fruit
The milk orange tree begins at age 12 to 15 years to bear fruit. Are formed wrinkled and pale green fruit associations, which are composed of single-seeded drupes; so it is a stone fruit dressing. This drupe associations are similar to cider, initially green and spherical. The ripe fruit associations can reach the size of a small melon with a diameter of 7-15 cm. With increasing maturity, the green color transforms into a yellow -green color and the fruit flows from a faint odor, reminiscent of oranges. The fruits ripen from September to October. Sometimes the ripe fruits weigh over 1 kg. The fleshy fruits contain a bitter, milky juice, by which the fruits turn black when dried.
The fruit is now broken only by gray squirrels, which thereby seeking access to the seeds they contain. Few other native species in North America use the fruits as food. This is unusual, since plants usually develop flesh oleaginous fruits, because they use it as a spread strategy digestion propagation ( Endochorie ). When milk orange tree is therefore presumed that the fruits were eaten by prairie mammoth, mastodon and the giant sloths. This American megafauna died out, however.
Dissemination
Maclura pomifera comes from the southern United States. The natural range of Maclura pomifera is relatively small; it extends from southwestern Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma to the eastern border of Texas.
Terms and History
Even in 1804 sent Meriwether Lewis to Thomas Jefferson cuttings. Since then, however, the milk orange tree was planted by the people throughout the United States.
The milk orange tree has become established and widespread in Central Europe in Scansano (Tuscany, Italy) and in Croatia. It was planted as a fence or Wegbefestigung. Otherwise it can be found sporadically in Central Europe as a street and park tree.
The original distribution area of Osagedorns in the border region of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma was also the settlement area of the Osage Indian tribe, after which the tree was named. As starting material for the manufacture of bows the wood was already then traded by the Indians about the natural geographical borders.
The thorny trees were once planted as hedges to fence in cattle pastures. As long as there was no barbed wire, Osage was the "living fence post " for many white farmers, as the equipped with prickly branches of trees suitable for planting awarded impenetrable hedges. This practice ended only with the introduction of barbed wire. The wood is however still used for posts and fence posts, because the heartwood is more than that of the oak used for this purpose huge pest resistant and weather resistant.
Cultivated forms
- ' Inermis ': A thornless cultivar.
Habitus and sheets
Leaves and bark in the autumn.
Thorny branch with leaves.
Bark
Inflorescences
Fruit stands
Fruit stands
Cut open fruit stands
Cut open fruit stands
Fruit stand
Fruit stands
Swell
- Connie Barlow and Paul Martin: The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms, 2002
- D. J. Mabberley: The Plant-Book. A Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants. Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 0521414210th
- USDA Forest Service: Silvics of Trees of North America: Maclura pomifera - data sheet.
Further Reading
- Osage Oranges Take a Bough, In: Smithsonian, Volume 34, Issue 12, March 2004, p 35 ABSTRACT: Offers a look at the role played by the expedition of Lewis Merriweather in the U.S. on the discovery of Osage orange Maclura pomifera or Goals in 1804 of his expedition. ; Origin of the Osage orange Obtained by Lewis; Popularity of the tree as a barrier. Text.