However after all the praises are sung about the fine qualities of its wood, Osage Orange trees are best known for the annoying and seemingly useless fruit produced by the female trees. who makes harps from Osage Orange wood because “he believes it to be the most dimensionally stable of all woods when aged and placed under strain.” Although I could not confirm it, I found several references online to a guy in Americus KS. One of the names given hedge wood by early explorers was bow wood, probably because they observed Osage Indians making bows from it. Osage Orange wood is also prized for making archery bows. As fence posts, hedge wood provides more rot resistance without chemicals than any other wood. As firewood, dried hedge wood produces more BTU’s than any other wood. The beast stands 54 feet tall and its branches span 90 feet. The largest known living Osage Orange tree grows on River Farms in Alexandria, Virginia. Osage Orange trees have been planted in greater numbers than any other single tree species in North America. Osage Orange seedlings planted thickly together in rows and aggressively pruned soon grew into living fences that were “Horse high, bull strong and hog tight ” tall enough a horse couldn’t jump it, stout enough a bull couldn’t push through it and so dense a hog couldn’t penetrate it. The trees get their name from the Osage Indian tribe that lived near the trees native range in the Red River valley of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, and from the citrus aroma emitted by the fruit. In the 1880s before the invention of barbed wire, ranchers began planting Osage Orange trees as living livestock fences. This time of year, anywhere there are hedge apple trees, also known as Osage Orange trees you will find piles of greenish-yellow hedge apple husks, deposited by squirrels chewing them apart to get to the many succulent seeds inside.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |