Broad-crowned tree to 20 m tall with thorns 2-3 cm long on the branchlets. Bark grey, releasing milky sap when scratched. Leaves ovate, mostly 8-12 cm long, 5-8 cm wide, downy-haired below, containing a milky sap. Flowers axillary, without petals and inconspicuous green in spring. Fruit spherical and bumpy, about the size of a cricket ball or larger; full of latex and not edible: it is a multiple fruit (syncarp) with achenes embedded in the pulp.

The common name is derived from the North American Osage Indians who used the wood to make their bows. Allegedly introduced to Victoria, and probably SE Australia, in the 1860s by the Californian gold diggers (the '49ers), and used as a hedge plant and windbreak. Only a few examples survive and it is now rarely grown.

North America

Cuttings, layers or seed.

The timber is still used commercially in America.

Spherical, inedible warty fruit about the size of a cricket ball or larger that exudes latex when cut.

SA: Adelaide Botanic Garden. ACT: Westbourne Woods (a small grove of trees). NSW: Concord ('Yaralla', over 100 years old, Eadith Walker Hospital; Picton), Wagga Wagga (Collins Park, more than 100 years old). VIC: Bacchus Marsh (orchards); Bulleen (row of 14 trees at Heide Gardens and Sculpture Park, planted late 1930s by owner John Reed); Edington (Mock Orange Lane, avenue 0.8 km long); Ivanhoe (corner Heidelberg Rd & The Boulevard, Sparks Reserve); Lilydale (Maroondah Hwy opposite entrance to Chirnside Park); Melbourne (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne Gardens), west along path from E Gate near nursery entrance); Bendigo (Myers Flat); Parkville (University of Melbourne System Garden (near Biosciences 2), male); Rutherglen (vineyards); There are also about 200 trees in a row extending along the south side of the Ovens Highway between the Everton-Markwood Rd. & the Service Station at Everton - an outstanding example of its use for hedge planting.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Moraceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.