Author Topic: Osage...?  (Read 2237 times)

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Offline redboard

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Osage...?
« on: May 05, 2014, 12:24:43 pm »
I found two Osage trees on my buddy's ranch...I think. Its got the right bark, the right leaves, the tufty-tufts before the fruit, orange wood. A dead 3 inch branch almost flipped over my 4-wheeler.  But try as I may I could not find ONE thorn?

I really don't know what else It could be.

No pics unfortunately, but has anyone heard of an Osage with no thorns?



Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2014, 12:30:30 pm »
Mulberry?
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline redboard

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 01:02:19 pm »
wrong leaves for Mulberry...

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2014, 01:05:52 pm »
I don't know of any other species with yellow'ish wood. Must be osage.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline redboard

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2014, 01:06:41 pm »
Either way I'm cutting some. I literally could not break a dead 1" branch off of the trunk, the thing whipped back fast enough to break a bone...and I'm pretty strong. I had to snap a little bitty branch to see what color the wood was.

One of the trees is halfway down and there are at least 50 6-8" limbs shooting straight up 10 feet or more off the horizontal trunk

Offline PatM

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2014, 01:21:44 pm »
Most cultivars of various trees are selected through random mutations. Even if the trees you have are not actually selected cultivars, the thornless trait is clearly present in the Osage population.
 http://shade-trees.tripod.com/families/selections/osage_orange.html
 

Offline Poggins

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2014, 02:08:14 pm »
I've seen a few osage trees with little or no thorns and I've seen covered in thorns , some of the older osage I've cut had thorns on the outer most new growth branches and very few elsewhere on the tree .
Pic would help .

Offline Joec123able

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2014, 04:28:10 pm »
Well give us some freakin pics !!!!
I like osage

Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2014, 04:40:31 pm »
Years ago I gave away most of the best osage tree I ever cut thinking it was mulberry because it didn't have thorns. I went back to the stump the following year and every sprout was covered up with thorns, bummer.

This past year I found this tree, no thorns but knew better this time, turned out to be some mighty fine osage.




Offline redboard

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2014, 05:30:03 pm »
sorry fellas, didn't have my phone when I found them and its a 25 minute drive to the ranch, 20 more minutes on the 4-wheeler to get to the trees...so no pics will be forthcoming.

I'll bring my Nikon though when I go and cut some!

Offline koan

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2014, 05:54:47 pm »
Most of the osage around me dont have any significant thorns.... Brian
When you complement a lady on her dress.....make sure she is the one wearing it.....

Offline Bogaman

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2014, 07:02:33 pm »
I've seen a lot of hedge/osage  without thorns. That should not be a qualifier.

Offline toomanyknots

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2014, 07:40:00 pm »
Dang, that's some thick sapwood eric! Looks like an inch in the photo, but it might be perspective or something.
"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline PatM

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2014, 08:02:47 pm »
In Asia they use an Osage/Mulberry hybrid as an ornamental. Not likely to be a naturally occurring cross I would think.

Offline okie64

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Re: Osage...?
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2014, 08:42:35 am »
I've seen a few osage trees with little or no thorns and I've seen covered in thorns , some of the older osage I've cut had thorns on the outer most new growth branches and very few elsewhere on the tree .
Pic would help .

Same here. Makes them much easier to process when they dont have thorns. I cut an osage cluster a few years ago that had 3-8" trees coming from the same sprout and every branch on those trees were covered in thorns. Wouldnt have been a big deal if it were in the woods and the top could have been left but it was in a womans yard and all the debris had to be cleaned up and hauled off >:(. I would cut all those 8" vertical limbs and leave the trunk so it can keep growing more, they will make great bows.