Osage Orange is a very hardy tree with large and abundant fruit. The only problem is that those fruit are filled with bitter latex.
It’s close relative Che doesn’t have that problem.
They have been hybridized successfully to create Macludrania hybrida and the fruit characteristics are intermediate between the two parents but no one seems to have been interested enough to grow out the F2 and see if they could get large fruits without the latex.
It seems like it would be easy enough to cross a female che and a thornless male Osage Orange like “white shield” and then cross the children together and see if any of the grandchildren are latex free when ripe
Maclura tricuspidata (Che–it’s been moved into the same genus as Osage Orange) is the fist tree that comes to mind for hybridization, but it may not be the best choice. The hybridization of it and M. pomifera (Osage Orange) is apparently quite difficult, and I don’t know if the progeny is fertile–though it wouldn’t hurt for people to try this route some more, seems under-researched.
Randyks mentioned M. Cochinchinensis, which is probably worth trying as well–though my assumption is it would still be a difficult hybridization. The problem is that neither M. Cochinchiensis not M. tricuspida are especially close to M. pomifera within the genus.
M. pomifera’s closest relative appears to be M. brasiliensis. I have no idea if brasiliensis has edible fruit though. M. tinctoria, a big timber tree from Central and South America that was used for a yellow dye until recently (US khaki uniforms were dyed with this) does have edible fruit which appear to be sweet when fully ripe, though filled with a yellow latex until very close to ripening. So M. tinctoria might be worth a try, though it might be difficult to manage in a greenhouse given how big it gets, and I doubt it will survive much frost given its distribution.
Hi,
I was just trying to figure out how to get breadfruit to be more hardy when i stumbled upon how closely related osage orange is. Then, i wondered if it could be hybridized, which brought me here.
What is your source that Che and Osage Orange have successfully been hybridized? I’ve only read about it on Eat The Weeds (Che - Eat The Weeds and other things, too), but when I tried to research it more I couldn’t find any other sources except an image showing a small plant at the Morton Arboretum, which might as well be a small Che (Osage Silk Thorn - Macludrania hybrida - North American Insects & Spiders). Is there any actual confirmation/proof (genetic test, pictures of hybrid fruits, scientific paper, etc) on this purported hybrid? Has anyone visited the plant at Morton Arboretum?
The original french hybrid is botanically described in Bailey’s Cyclopedia of Horticulture in my 1916 edition. There was an article on the web by a Swiss,German, Austrian? horticulturist nicknamed Wolf who was involved with the remake of this hybrid in early 70’s. Professor Kipplinger? did it at university in Columbus Ohio. Personal communication (2005?) with one of the researchers there at that time, he still had several of the offspring growing at his ex-wife’s property. He said they were somewhat differing habits, thorny, male’s and female’s, and bulletproof with absolutely no care whatsoever over decades.
Looks like the classification of che as belonging to a separate genus from osage orange is not currently recognized as valid. At this point, they are both considered to be members of the genus Maclura. That would make the hybrid designation of ×Macludrania invalid since it is no longer considered to be an intergeneric hybrid, but rather an interspecific hybrid.
Unfortunately, while related those two are far enough apart that hybrids are extraordinarily unlikely. It would be like hybridizing apples and strawberries.
Breadfruit is extremely tropical, I’m not sure any kind of cold tolerance is realistic. Your best bet would be to try to hybridize it with the somewhat subtropical members of the genus like Artocarpus styracifolius (somewhat, this is still pretty much a tropical plant, just less unforgivingly so than breadfruit).
I can’t think this would be too hard, given that osage oranges are either male or female, and some seedless che fruit are seedless unless pollinated by a male. So just grow the seedless female che next to a male osage orange, and if no other males are nearby then all seeds should be hybrid. There’s at least one male cultivar of osage orange: White Shield Osage Orange (Male).
I once found a M.pomifera + tricuspidata graft hybrid in my nursery. For some reason I cant recall, the tricuspidata graft on pomifera rootstock had died almost back to the rootstock. Only the callus tissue was left. Its sprouted a few shoots of which 3 were intermediate between pomifera and cudrania. I only kept the most vigourous one (in hindsisght that was a very stupid decision). Unfortunately the tree died after transplanting… So I just want to demonstrate that perhaps it is easier to create a chimaera than to actually cross them. Maclura makes a lot of callus at the cut edge when branches are cut or when the trunk is severed. It profusely generates new shoots from the callus. In my opinion it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate the event that I described by simply grafting tricuspidata onto pomifera rootstock and then cutting it down right in the middle where the callus from both species meets. It should resprout profusely and chnces are that anoth graft chimaera will form.
I added some pics that clealy demonstrate the two types of shoots coming from the rootstock callus:
pic 5 shows the died back graft and 3 shoots sproting from the callus.
pic4: left shoot is pomifera, right shoot is the chimaera
That’s incredibly fascinating. Do you happen to remember what type of graft was used, or how old the graft was when the chimera appeared?
I can’t say for certain from the photo, but it appears the chimera may have had altered phyllotaxy, with a whorled leaf arrangement, which is more common in chimeras. I’ve observed whorled phyllotaxy in seedlings with an extra cotyledon- unfortunately, the leaf arrangement has always reverted to the typical pattern over time.
It’s a shame the chimera didn’t stick around, but that does seem to be the fate of most chimeras.
about phyllotaxy: this can be quite different in upright growing vigorous juvenile shoots versus adult, weaker generative shoots. Just as in mulberries: .rotating leaves versus opposite leaves vigorous vegetative shoots versus weaker generative twigs.
This picture explains my point exactly. It really shouldn’t be that hard to induce chimaera growth from mixed callus once you have cut the trunk of a well established grafted rootstock right at the graft union.
I’m very curious if a chimera could actually be used in making new hybrids? Like how chimeras still can produce seeds, though they’d be from only one of the things that make up the chimera and I wonder if it could save the effort of doing the embryo rescue by the plant having mixed genetics making it not abort a hybrid seeds that would normally be aborted?
I think you might be able to induce a graft chimera even without cutting back the scion to just above the graft. Notching cuts across the graft scar should have potential to stimulate bud formation.
