Plant · P-152

Osage Orange

Maclura pomifera

Osage Orange is a living fence - rows of this thorny tree fenced the American plains before barbed wire existed, and it still grows into a stock-proof hedge that needs no imported material and regrows itself every time it's cut. It tolerates alkaline soil better than almost any other tree researched in this set, along with heat, drought and flooding alike, and it is the species the Dust Bowl shelterbelts were built from. Cutting the hedge is not maintenance overhead - the tree resprouts vigorously from the stump, especially from winter cuts, turning hedge-laying into a scheduled firewood and biomass harvest. It comes in two forms worth telling apart: thorny seedlings for a true stock-proof barrier, or named thornless male cultivars for shade or posts without the litter or the spines.