how to ID osage in the winter.

[Deerhunter21]

So how do you do it? i wanna cut some Osage but all the fruits are gone, leaves are dead, how do I id it?

edit - also what is a dead giveaway? how can i... lets say 40mph down a country road and look over and say "thats an osage tree!" because i dont live in the country so i have little chance to look for trees so when i am driving along a country road i want to make sure i see them.

P.S. I live in osage country (Nebraska) so there should be a lot.

[Hawkdancer]

There should still be some fruits hanging up out of reach of the deer!  I think you have had a fairly mild fall.  Google it up and you should get a good winter bark picture.  You might check the bookstores for a used tree guide textbook, no point in learning just one tree!
Hawkdancer

[Eric Krewson]

First place it has what I call a tortured crown, limbs going every which way. It also has a dark color in the winter that is slightly off from every other tree around, yellow gray.

[Deerhunter21]

so kinda like bur oak?

[Eric Krewson]

Nope, osage is so distinctive once you can recognise it you can pick it out of a fence row in the winter from a quarter mile away, it stands out. You can do the same in the summer because the dark green shiny leaves stand out as well.

[PEARL DRUMS]

There will still be plenty of fruit remains around the bases. Whole fruit or just seeds.

[Pat B]

Milky sap

[PatM]

Milky sap

Hard to detect at 40 mph. 

[Hrothgar]

Most of the osage here in N. Missouri aren't real tall, often times found in a clump, but also very common in fence rows --the local Amish often plant and use them for this purpose .

Shouldn't be difficult to find in your pat of the country.

[Dances with squirrels]

The monkeyball fruit is a dead giveaway, but only the female trees bear fruit, and not every female tree is a heavy producer or makes fruit every year. I know of entire osage rows that never grow the fruit for whatever reasons.

Like Eric said, they're unique enough to be easy to recognize, with a little experience. After a while, ya just kinda know.

From a distance, with all the leaves off, they do give off a greenish yellow cast in the outer branches, relative to other nearby trees.

You could find some likely suspects, take some good pictures of the bark, branches, whole tree, and post them here.

[Pat B]

If you run into an osage tree at 40mph it will show the white sap. 

[Dances with squirrels]

And if you run into it at 60 mph you might see the yellow heartwood

[Deerhunter21]

And if you run into it at 80 mph you might see all the Osage trees in the area as you fly up with your wings!

[Hawkdancer]

Moral:  when looking for Osage at any speed, either ride shotgun, or don't drive faster than your guardian angel can fly!  It's out there!
Hawkdancer

[Ringeck85]

Adding more:

Another Tip if the roots are exposed at all (I harvested some osage where it was all ripped up to clear land for cattle grazing), the roots are a distinct bright orange color.

Also, it has sharp thorns in the branches!  Not too many othertrees with its size and description do, and the bark looks very different than say honey locust (which has longer thorns usually)