The Intriguing Osage Orange!

Osage Orange fruit, Maclura pomifera

Other names for this fruit have been horse apple, hedge apple, or monkey brain - my personal favorite!

The Osage Orange tree is something of a mystery. To look at the large, grapefruit-sized fruit dropped by the tree in the fall, you would think it w as a fabulous feast for animals, or indigenous peoples in the past - but no. The Osage Orange - named for the Osage Nation of indigenous people - was wide-spread across the Midwest Plain states of North American some 12,000 years ago. How did it spread? What was it’s appeal?

Osage Orange pulpy interior with seeds at the center.

Today only squirrels are interested in opening the lime green fruit to devour its seeds. This would not make for successful seed dispersal. One thought is that this was a giant-sized fruit fit for giant-sized herbivores. Some 12,000 years ago that would have included mastadons, mammoths, and giant sloths, successfully dispersing the seeds across the Midwest Plain states.

Osage Orange tree at the Morton Arboretum

It turns out the real value of the Osage Orange tree is the properties of its wood. The wood burns hotter than any other tree in North America. It is also very strong and flexible, as well as resistant to decay. Wow! The wood was prized for its excellent archery bows.

Later, after settlement, settlers planted the trees as useful hedge rows against wind. They prized the strong decay resistant wood for fence posts. Much of the Oklahoma, Missouris, Kansas prairies were fenced in with Osage Orange wood.

Always something to pique my curiostiy on a walk through the Arb with my friends!