Common Name: MULBERRY FAMILY Habit: [Perennial herb] shrub, [vine] tree, generally with milky juice; monoecious or dioecious. Leaf: alternate [opposite], petioled, generally simple, entire to lobed, evergreen or deciduous; stipules present. Inflorescence: raceme, spike, head, or flowers enclosed in thick receptacle, axillary. Flower: unisexual or bisexual, small, +- radial; sepals generally 4, free or fused at base; petals 0; stamens generally 4, opposite sepals; ovary generally superior, 1-chambered, style simple or 2-parted. Fruit: achenes many within fleshy calyces or surrounded by fleshy inflorescence receptacle. Genera In Family: 37 genera, 1100 species: tropics, subtropics, some temperate; many cultivated (Ficus, fig; Artocarpus, breadfruit, jackfruit; Morus, mulberry). Note: Insect- or wind-pollinated. eFlora Treatment Author: Alan T. Whittemore & Elizabeth McClintock Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Common Name: OSAGE ORANGE Habit: Tree, thorny; dioecious. Stem: buds scaly; stipule scars obscure, not encircling stem. Leaf: alternate, or clustered with inflorescences, entire, deciduous; major veins pinnate. Inflorescence: +- erect, spheric; staminate an umbel or umbel-like raceme, > 1 per axil, peduncled; pistillate a head, 1 per axil, sessile. Pistillate Flower: style simple. Fruit: spheric, bumpy, of many achenes within fleshy calyces, yellow-green [red]. Etymology: (William McClure, American geologist, 1760--1840) Note: Wind-pollinated.
Maclura pomifera (Raf.) C.K. Schneid.
NATURALIZED Habit: Plant to 20 m; thorns to 3 cm. Leaf: petiole 1--4 cm; blade 3--14 cm, ovate to lance-oblong, dark green, sparsely soft-hairy. Fruit: 9--15 cm diam, yellow-green, densely irregularly warty. Ecology: Streambanks, disturbed areas; Elevation: < 440 m. Bioregional Distribution: GV, SCo, WTR; Distribution Outside California: native to south-central United States. Flowering Time: Apr--Jun Note: Widely planted; fruit inedible. Much less thorny with age. Unabridged Note: Fruits fall unripe with the seeds still immature, the fruit then ripening on the ground and the seed maturing over the next several months. Jepson eFlora Author: Alan T. Whittemore & Elizabeth McClintock Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Maclura Next taxon: Morus
Citation for this treatment: Alan T. Whittemore & Elizabeth McClintock 2012, Maclura pomifera, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=32435, accessed on February 08, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on February 08, 2025.
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