I don't know what it is, but i cut one down on my property. It grew from seed and within two years, it was about 25 feet tall! I have seen them planted in parking lots here and also growing wild (not sure if native or introduced) in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada (Millerton Lake to be more specific).

I was on a trip this past week to Arkansas and took a detour to the source tree to obtain some acorns. Following Kman04's line of testing--- "if you have any acorns or acorn caps from the original tree, is the inside of the acorn cap hairy or mostly hairless? If it's mostly hairless, it's Q. shumardii, and if it's hairy, then it's Q. nuttallii."---the acorns show the tree is Q. shumardii. The inside cap is mostly hairless. Further the acorns have the characteristic overlapping scales, short stalk, and mostly flat top. I learned from the Louisiana State University Ag Center site that the Nuttall acorn "has a distinctive cap with scales extending onto the projection holding the acorn to the twig. This characteristic makes it readily identifiable from all other southern acorns." These acorns are definitely not the Nuttall. This confirms the central insights given. Thanks for your help.

Katsura Gardens - Plymouth Morrisons - Plymouth Hyannis Country Garden - Hyannis I don't remember the name of it but there is a garden center just off of Rte 6 somewhere around Wellfleet that has a lot of crape myrtles for sale including some very large ones.

Maclura pomifera IS a member of the mulberry family, Moraceae, but quite a distinctive one. They were once very common in rural farming areas all over the US, though their native range was originally a small area in NE TX and adjoining states. They were used as hedging/fencing, as they formed impenetrable thickets when sheared. They were the original "barbed wire". Now they are generally seen as a nuisance, even a danger with their wicked thorns, and are becoming rare in many areas. In my childhood, they were quite common here. Now, I have *one* on my 105 acre farm, and it's the only one I've seen in years. One oddity of the tree is that although the species is dioecious, the female tree when grown in isolation will still bear large oranges, perfectly formed but lacking seeds (as my tree does). Another factoid: the wood of the osage orange, when dried and burned, has the highest heating value of any native North American tree. Sorry for geeking out. This tree has always fascinated me.