Maclura Pomifera - Osage Orange. (Plant Palette)

Flemer, Bill, IV, Landscape & Irrigation

I've always had a particular fondness for plants that seem to pop out of nowhere. They're there all along, but you don't notice them until they do something unexpected that brings them to center stage for a while. Once they've done it, they fade back into the wings, and we forget about them, until they perform the same trick again next year.

Common witchhazel is one example. It's virtually invisible in the understory all summer and fall, until it unfurls its delicate, pale yellow flowers in November, lighting up the dark and dormant woods. Only then do you realize how common it really is, all around us.

The osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is another one. All year …

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Publication information: Article title: Maclura Pomifera - Osage Orange. (Plant Palette). Contributors: Flemer, Bill, IV - Author. Magazine title: Landscape & Irrigation. Volume: 26. Issue: 1 Publication date: January 2002. Page number: 27. © 2009 Bev-AL Communications, Inc. COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group.

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