Osage Orange Root Trainer Seedling (Maclura pomifera)

Description

Medium-sized deciduous tree, bright green glossy leaves, large inedible orange-like fruit, traditionally used as hedging. Wood is dense and rot-resistant. Commonly found in historic hedgerows in New Zealand. This tree bears orange-sized fruit, a lurid neon green in colour, high up in the tree. Osage orange is a medium-sized tree with a short trunk, dense, round, or irregular crown, milky sap, and stout thorns, with extremely orange bark on the roots. Osage oranges have a firm, textured, and deeply grooved surface, and the exterior ripens from green to shades of lime green, yellow-green, yellow, and bright green.

These trees are native to the Americas, and because they were so highly valued by the early ship captains traveling the world in the 1800’s they were planted in the places chosen to stop, so that the wood would be available to future travelers for fixing and building boats. The wood was used as dowels instead of nails. The original trees in McLeods Bay on the Kaiapara are still there.

Osage Orange Uses:

Furniture Making – Durability and striking looks of Osage orange tree wood is moreover used for high-end furniture. Woodturning and Craft Projects – Many woodturners and crafters prefer Osage orange wood, because of its exceptional turning properties. Woodturning and Craft Projects – Many woodturners and crafters prefer Osage orange wood, because of its exceptional turning properties. – Tool Handles. – Fencing and Posts. – Wooden bowls and dying.

It is a wonderful dye for crafters.

Forest Gardens are orchards designed in such a way so the needs of the heavy bearing heavy feeding fruit trees are taken care of in the design.

We do this by:

• Ensuring no more than 60% of the canopy space is taken up by heavy feeders. We prefer 40%.
• For every square metre of heavy feeder canopy there is 0.8 of a square metre of nitrogen fixer.
• For every square metre of heavy feeder there is 1 comfrey plant.
• You have all seven (7) layers of the forest garden present.
• You have as wide a range of mineral accumulators present.

For more details about this see the Koanga Design Your Own Forest Garden Booklet