Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneid.
Osage orange
The Osage orange was already in cultivation outside
its natural range when Lewis saw it in St Louis. It
would soon become the most commonly planted tree
in the settlers' farms, and was brought to the
gardens of the eastern United States as one of the
discoveries of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
As soon as he reached St Louis, Lewis came across plants new to him. In a
letter to Jefferson dated March 26, 1804, he tells how he found a few
“Osage apple” and “Osage’s plum” in the garden of the prominent fur
trader Pierre Chouteau (1758-1849) and how he asked Chouteau to give
him details about the origin of his trees. Thought to be native to the west,
and present day southern Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas,
the Osage orange had already moved a long way eastward owing to
contacts between Indians and traders. Five years earlier (1799) Chouteau
had obtained a few young trees in an Osage village, from an Indian who
himself had gotten them 300 miles away (Lewis, March 26, 1804).
The Old Chouteau House Mansion, Bonfils. St Louis County MO
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division [HABS MO,95-BONFI,1]
“Lewis and Clark as Naturalists” website
http://www.mnh.si.edu/lewisandclark/index.html?loc=/lewisandclark/home.html
The qualities of the Osage orange wood, durable and with exceptional
strength and elasticity at the same time, made the tree extremely valuable
to the Osage Indians. The bows and arrows they crafted from this wood
were highly prized in the extensive exchange networks among Indian
groups, and a bow was equivalent to one horse and a blanket in trade
(Hatch 2003).
This tree normally grows to a height
of 25 to 30 feet, but early settlers
soon learned to trim the Osage
orange to make thick, dense natural
hedges for their corral enclosures.
Before the invention of barbed wire,
this became the most commonly
planted tree in the US. The seeds
reached fairly high prices on mid19th century rural markets. The
odoriferous, tough, inedible fruit of
the Osage orange was also part of the
tree’s appeal when displayed in
homes to serve as insect repellent.
Because Choteau's trees were
immature, Lewis did not see them
bearing either flowers or fruit. His
detailed description of the fruit is
based on Chouteau’s relation of the
Indians’ “extravagant account of the
Maclura auriantiaca [Maclura pomifera],
Osage orange in Nuttall’s Sylva
Photo Smithsonian Institution
exquisite odor of this fruit when it
has obtained maturity” (Lewis,
March 26, 1804 in Thwaites 1959).
“Lewis and Clark as Naturalists” website
http://www.mnh.si.edu/lewisandclark/index.html?loc=/lewisandclark/home.html
The Osage orange also became valuable as an ornamental tree. The seeds
and cuttings that Lewis took from Chouteau's trees were successfully
grown by Thomas Jefferson in Monticello and by two nurserymen from
Philadelphia, Bernard McMahon and David Hamilton. In the mid-19th
century, Osage orange was offered in Robert Carr’s catalogs, for its
“beautiful foliage and curious fruit” (Cutright 1969: 374). Several trees
allegedly grown from these early seedlings are still standing. A large
specimen on the Washington River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia is
believed to be Jefferson’s gift to the Washington family, and St Peter's
Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, formerly the site of McMahon's garden,
displays a row of Osage oranges in the churchyard.
Read Lewis’s letter to
Jefferson
When making final preparations for
the expedition in St Louis, Lewis
shipped his first box of specimens
with cuttings of the Osage orange to
Jefferson. Click on the link to read
Lewis’s description in his
accompanying letter of March 26,
1804.
Maclura auriantiaca [Maclura pomifera],
Osage orange in Nuttall’s Sylva
Photo Smithsonian Institution
“Lewis and Clark as Naturalists” website
http://www.mnh.si.edu/lewisandclark/index.html?loc=/lewisandclark/home.html
Bibliography
Nuttall, Thomas. 1849 . The North American Sylva. Smith & Wistar,
Philadalphia. 3 volumes.
Cutright, Paul Russell. 1969 . Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists.
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London
Peter, Hatch. 2003 . "Public Treasures": Thomas Jefferson and the
Garden Plants of Lewis and Clark. Twinleaf Journal, Thomas Jefferson
Center for Historic Plants at Monticello. Article also available as an
electronic resource: http://www.twinleaf.org/articles/treasures.html
Thwaites, Reuben Gold. 1959 . Original Journals of Lewis and Clark
expedition 1804-1806. Antiquarian Press LTD, New-York . 7 volumes.
(first edition 1904-1905)
Internet Resources
Burton J.D. Osage orange. Sylvic of North America, United States
Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 654,
vol.2
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/maclura/p
omifera.htm
Dominique Harre Rogers
Edited by Rusty Russell
“Lewis and Clark as Naturalists” website
http://www.mnh.si.edu/lewisandclark/index.html?loc=/lewisandclark/home.html