Milk Orange Tree

The milk orange tree (Maclura pomifera), also called Osagedorn, is a deciduous tree species of the genus in the family Moraceae Maclura (Moraceae).

Description

The deciduous tree grows to height of 15 meters and up to 12 feet wide. The bark of the tree is dark brown and cracked. The dornbewehrten branches form an open, irregular crown. The leaves are oval and dark green.

The Osagedorn is dioecious, unisexual (dioecious), the yellow female and male flowers are so formed in different individuals. The tree begins at age 12-15 years to bear fruit.

From the inflorescences develop wrinkled and pale green fruit (fruit bodies). The fruit is apfelsinenähnlich, green and spherical. The ripe fruit can reach a diameter of 7-15 centimeters, the size of a small melon. With increasing maturity, converts the green color in a yellow-green color around the fruit and exudes a faint scent reminiscent of oranges.

The fruits are now only broken by gray squirrels that want to get to the fact they contain seeds. Few other species native to North America to use the fruits as food.

This is unusual, as plants develop normally fruchtfleischhaltige fruits, because they benefit as the spread strategy, the digestive spread (Endochorie). When milk orange tree is believed therefore that the fruits have been eaten by prairie mammoth, the mastodon and giant sloths. This American megafauna died out, however.


Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milchorangenbaum

See Also: International Flower Delivery, Florist