osage orange (aka hedge)

[TheMDTreeman]

Jay,

Wasn't knocking the tree. I was only going by personal experience of dealing with it. The tree is not too bad looking if maintained well. Sorry to step on your toes.

 

[TREETX]

Same goes with a lot of trees classically viewed as weeds. Mesquite and cedar are getting popular here in TX and they are the weed of the world when it comes to agricultural uses. Great urban tree though.

Also take into account that the average street tree lives only 20yrs.

Give it a shot.

 

[TheMDTreeman]

Tree-of-Heaven is another, Ailanthus altissima, it will grow out of cracks in concrete, but the wood is week and worthless and those males stink.

 

[Jay Banks]

MD,
Don't worry I wear steel toes!! Yes, in the unkept form osage, tree of heaven, locust all are "weed" trees. But understand that in the urban forest we put a much higher stress on trees along streets.

I need trees that perform, by which I mean can take urban life. No rooting area, pollution, poor drainage--you know the rest. If osage can be brutilized in the hedgerow, tamed slightly by removing the thorns and fruit, I'll give it a try in a 2 foot planting strip.

 

[TREETX]

Tree-of-Heaven is another, Ailanthus altissima, it will grow out of cracks in concrete, but the wood is week and worthless and those males stink.

Around here we call it Ghetto Palm

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I love box elder, ailanthus, siberian elm for inner city neighborhoods. They grow where other trees will not.

Coming to a fence near you!

Ghetto plam, so they get topped in the hoot on a regular basis?:alien:

 

[TREETX]

add chinaberry and hackberry to the list of wicked fence trees

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

hackberry is a landscape tree up here.

Is what you have down there Celtis occidentalis, or a different Sp.?

 

[TREETX]

Celtis laevigata, reticulata, lindheimeri. I think mainly the laevigata here, Sugarberry or Sugar Hackberry. Double checked with my book and it says that the only occidentalis in TX is in the panhandle.

Does it have good branch structure?? Live a long time??

Here, on what I call Hackberry, if you remove everything rubbing, crossing, dead, dying, or diseased, it is a simple Stihl and Rayco treatment. They are a great wildlife tree - means they volunteer everywhere. Very wolfy, grow straight up through a 400yr old oak, shade it out, killing half the oak, and then dying from hypoxylin after the first stress period.

Simply put, what I call HB is a liability tree and not a legacy tree.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/vol2_Table_of_contents.htm

I think they are a pretty good replacement for the loss of U. americana, up here the elm will grow well for 20-30 years trhen go poof over night.

We have some very big C. occidentalis in this area with a nice even spread and clean straight boles. A little corser in form then elm, but can get a good spreading shape.

 

[Jay Banks]

Back to the Hedge-apple.

Current reading in the J of A Ohio urban foresters planted 30 of the males in 2000 and plan another 154. (pg.298)
They are also planting black locust so I don't know what the streets look like in Ohio but there must be some tough neigborhoods.

PS love hackberrys as well.

 

[Dan F]

Originally posted by che


"The wood is very good for inserts or stoves, but inappropriate for fireplaces (IMHO) because of the amount of sparks this wood will throw off. Some of the hottest burning wood, up there with locust...actually, a bit hotter I think."


On a somewhat off topic note, but I think it could happen to someone out there.....

My wife is an art teacher at the local middle school. Last week she had her class do a "pit firing" of the ceramic pots they had made. Basically the process is that you dig a pit in the ground, put a grate of some sort in it, put the pots on the grate and get a hot fire going underneath. You let it burn for two hours and then you throw a bunch of straw on and cover it all up with the soil you dug out. Makes for some neat looking pottery.

Well, she needed wood for the firing. So I sent her to school with a good amount of black locust (its what we had). If you know anything about pottery, it's somewhat fragile. If you know anything about how locust burns (see above quote), it pops.

I told her before she left to make sure the kids didn't stand too close to the fire because it would pop and throw sparks. Niether one of us thought about the pots being fragile.

Ended up that as the wood popped, pots broke. Out of 25 pots that were fired, only one of them survived mostly intact! The kids were mad at me!


So, I guess what I am getting at, is if anyone ever has an art teacher or artist call them asking where they can get wood, or if they can get some firewood donated for a project, DON'T give them locust or osage orange or anything that pops! Some soft maple would probably be best.

Just general FYI.


Dan