I went hiking in a Nature Preserve here in Charlotte, North Carolina - which doesn't have near as many osage orange trees as the Ohio/Kentucky area I grew up in - and came upon this enormous fallen osage tree.  I had no idea they could get this big!  According to the plaque it was over a hundred years old when it blew over.  What amazes me is that even though it's been down for twenty years now, the bark's not even rotted off!  I guess osage must be really rot resistant.

Wow I never knew that either.  I always thought Osage was more of a hedge line type tree!!  That is really cool!!  

Joe, I've got a couple of monsters that are each a good bit larger than the downed tree in the photo. They have been in the fencerow in our riverbottom for a very long time. They were large when I was a small child . I'm 53.  Grant

"Typically planted as a shade tree"

Yeah, as long as it's your great grandchildren that you plan on enjoying the shade.

Those are huge trees!  This one grows in Alexandria, VA at George Washington's River Farm.  It is thought to have been a gift from Thomas Jefferson, who got seeds and seedlings from Lewis and Clark.  The folks who run River Farm say that it is the second largest osage in the states (according to a formula that measures dbh, height, and spread of canopy).

 

this one!

I'll have to go out to my brother's farm and take a picture of the row of Hedge trees that I used to hike around when my grandparents owned the place.  They were huge when I was 8 or 10 years old.  Now they are 40 years older.

Dennis

can some post a pic of a sapling of Osage....Also does it have long thorns on the branches?

i cut two down that size in NY when i was in  my twenties--they were guarding the end of the drive way to an old estate that was owned by a turn of the century timber dealer---the thing i remember best is the rounds were about the heavyist wood i ever encountered--wow!

My buddy George and I went on an osage cutting excursion to the bend of the river(local place) and found several about the size of the one in the first picture. We came to to conclusion that dropping one the way they were standing would probably kill us so we left them alone.