Osage is a clue to the species’ history. Native in the Great Plains region of northwest Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas Maclura pomifera was given its common name for the Indian Nation inhabiting the same area: the Osage Nation.

 

Natives species live in the place where they developed over geologic time within an ecosystem; uniting concepts of biology, ecology, and geology. Naturalized species are non-natives that do not require human assistance to reproduce in the new habitat. A species that has been moved from a place of origin to become naturalized on the same continent is a translocated species such as the Osage orange.