Part 34

Flowers: About two inches long, cup-shaped, with six yellow-green petals with an orange base surrounding a cone-shaped cluster of pistils; opening in May.

Fruit: Dry “cones” about 2½ inches long, composed of several winged seeds.

Wood: Soft, durable.

Uses: Lumber, veneer cores to which other wood can be glued, canoes, frames.

Habitat: Rich soil.

Range: Connecticut and Vermont across to southern Michigan, southwestward across Illinois to Louisiana, east to Central Florida.

Distinguishing Features: The shape of the leaf is unlike that of any other tree in Illinois.

OSAGE ORANGE Maclura pomifera Schneid.

Other Names: Hedge Apple; Bow Wood.

Growth Form: Medium tree to 40 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 1 foot; crown rounded or dome-shaped, with several rather stout, spreading branches.

Bark: Light gray-brown tinged with orange, separating into shaggy strips.

Twigs: Dull orange-brown, smooth, zigzag, with short, sharp, axillary spines; leaf scars alternate, half-round, elevated, with usually 3 groups of bundle traces.

Buds: Round, reddish-brown, smooth, very tiny.

Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades ovate or ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed at the tip, narrowed or a little bit heart-shaped at the base, up to 5 inches long and 3½ inches broad, smooth along the edges, green and smooth on both surfaces; leafstalks smooth, up to 2 inches long.

Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne on separate trees, yellow-green, very tiny, the staminate crowded in short clusters on stalks up to 4 inches long, the pistillate crowded into spherical heads on short, stout stalks.

Fruit: Large, spherical, greenish-yellow compound fruit up to 6 inches in diameter, containing many seeds, succulent flesh, and milky sap.

Wood: Heavy, hard, flexible, durable, coarse-grained, orange when first cut, becoming brown.

Uses: Bows, fence posts, railroad ties, tool handles; often planted as a windbreak.

Habitat: Hedge-rows, woods.

Range: Native only in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; commonly planted elsewhere and often escaped from cultivation.

Distinguishing Features: The Osage Orange is distinguished by its spiny branches, its long-pointed, toothless leaves, its milky sap, and its large, spherical, yellow-green fruits.

CUCUMBER MAGNOLIA Magnolia acuminata L.

Other Name: Cucumber Tree.

Growth Form: Medium tree up to 75 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown broadly rounded or pyramidal.

Bark: Gray or brown, with shallow furrows when older.

Twigs: Rather stout, reddish-brown, smooth; leaf scars alternate, U-shaped, with several scattered bundle traces.

Buds: Silvery-white, hairy, up to nearly 1 inch long, with a single bud scale.

Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades usually elliptic, short-pointed at the apex, rounded or tapering to the base, up to 10 inches long and more than half as broad, entire along the edges, yellow-green and smooth on the upper surface, paler and sometimes hairy on the lower surface.