The Strange Fruit Of The Osage Orange

The patterns on the fruit of the Osage orange are the reason I photographed them.

Osage orange, (Maclura pomifera), also called bowwood, is a thorny tree or shrub native to the south-central United States. Its hard yellow-orange wood was used for bows and war clubs by the Osage and other Native American tribes (hence the name).

Female flowers are borne in a dense, nearly spherical cluster and fuse together to produce a fruit known as a multiple. The large yellow-green wrinkled fruit often grows to more than 13 cm (5 inches) in diameter and contains a milky sap that can produce dermatitis in humans.