saw this tree in park nearby and thought maybe Osage orange. I don’t see any Osage around here but this park has a number of trees not normally seen.
Never seen it in person and have only learned about it here on the forum. Bark and growth shape looks like it. Maybe we could have a little covert cutting operation to find out!
I’ve only seen Osage while I stayed in Virginia once. Stated at an air bnb where this lady had Osage orange and honey locust everywhere. I saw a pile of firewood that brought a tear to my eye .
From what I knew this would be a huge Osage orange tree, next time I’m there I have the dogs pose for a sense of scale.
Now that I'm on my computer... It looks like Mulberry to me... lukem .... I know he's pretty good about this species... Lets see what he says....
Osage is in the mulberry family. CT did you see any small fruit on the tree? If not it's probably a mulberry tree since they've finished up fruiting already. Osage should have the beginnings of their fruit developing. "The small, green flowers appear in May or June. The female trees produce 3- to 5- inch-diameter fruit which ripen in September or October and fall to the ground."
I'm going to go w mulberry then. I have 2 big ornamental mulberries on my front lawn and a fruiting one in the back. the ornamentals have bigger leaves than the fruiting tree. I'd love to get my hands on some osage.
I just did a quick google on Osage firewood. The first site says it can be hot enough to damage your stove. Wow, the wood myths are everywhere.