Its wood is hard, strong, durable, and resilient, and for those reasons it was widely used for bows by the plains Indians. Pioneer women soon discovered that the bark of the roots made an excellent yellow dye for their home-spun cloth. Leaves are bright, shiny and oval shaped. They are smooth and leathery to the touch. Fruit resembles a grapefruit, being a yellowish-green, round, and an aggregate or grouping of many small individual fruits.
Squirrels are about the only animals which eat the oranges.
Both fruit and leaves have a white, sticky sap. Twigs are slender, light orange in color and bear short, sharp thorns. Mature bark has the appearance of bands wrapped around a pole, with wide furrows. It has an olive-orange color. The wood is very strong, bright yellow, turning dark upon exposure to air.