Osage orange is another common name. Osage refers to the Osage Indians who traded this prized bow wood to other tribes. Maclura pomifera is actually in the mulberry family and is not related to the citrus family. It loves heat and needs very little water. The oil on the surface of the leaf contains urishiol, which takes only a few seconds to bind with skin proteins and then can't be washed off.
Blisters form several days later.
The bright yellow roots were used to dye silk parachutes. San Antonio dairy farmers supplied much of the raw materials, collecting roots from fence rows outside of town. Parachutes for different drops were color-coded to indicate whether they contained equipment, supplies, food, or ammunition, and agarita provided the yellow. Read up on them in the Useful Wild Plants of Texas, the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains, and Northern Mexico . It includes information from around the world, color photographs, and distribution maps for 3,000 useful plants.