Take the legendary osage orange, aka hedge apple (Maclura pomifera). Orange, apple and pomifera make it sound all fruity doesn’t it? But the 5-inch diameter chartreuse fruit easily weighs a pound, and you don’t want to get beaned by one. Or you don’t want one to fall on your car. Or run over one with your bike.
Used by Native Americans, osage orange’s native range is Oklahoma and Texas, but the species has spread throughout much of the Midwest and New England due to cultivation. The wood of this 50-foot tall tree is prized by archers for arrows – one of its common names is bow wood. Rot resistant, it was used to make wheel rims and mining supports. Like hollies, a male and female plant is needed for fruit production. The fruits are dropping from trees now.
Osage orange “was early introduced into Indiana for use as a fence in the prairie areas,” the state’s first forester Charles C. Deam wrote in 1909 in Trees of Indiana. He found the tree scattered throughout the state, but primarily in southern and central Indiana. The name hedge apple comes from its use as a hedge, in part to define property lines. Inch-long spines along the branches reduced human and animal interference.
Folklore ascribes spider-fighting powers to these chartreuse fruits, prompting some people to put them in their garage or attic to ward off eight- and six-legged critters. The seeds are the only parts edible for humans, but they are mess to get to, fingers in slime and all that. Squirrels, deer, cattle and horses are fond of the fruits.
Although we think of osage orange trees as rural or roadside species, they do show up in urban areas. For instance, there’s one along the edge of a parking lot at the Chase Legacy Building on Indianapolis’ east side, near Tech High School. Remember that part about not wanting an osage orange to hit the car? Of course, I moved mine.
You can sometimes find osage orange fruits at farmers markets or roadside stands. There are a few online sources that sell the tree: coldstreamfarm.net in Michigan and naturehillsnursery.com in Nebraska. The latter says the tree is out of stock.
Or, you might be able to gather one in the wild and plant it to see what happens.
Despite many misinterpretations of the fruit being inedible, the fruit is edible but is not commonly consumed due to its unpalatable features, such as the bitter flavor and unpleasant latex-like liquid that can irritate the skin. Beyond the flesh, the seeds are edible and can be roasted.
These fruits are more popularly known as "monkey balls" in Pennsylvania. A long time ago (10,000 -13,000 years or so), woolly mammoths, ground-sloths, and several other now extinct mammals ate the Osage orange fruits. The seeds from the fruits passed undigested through the mammals' system and were expelled.
Osage oranges, the hedge apples you often see strewn beneath trees, are a puzzle for pet owners. They're not the typical fruit you'd toss to your dog for a snack, and for good reason. While not outright toxic, these green brain-lookalikes can be a digestive nightmare for dogs.
One word of caution: Sawdust or sanding dust from Osage orange is toxic. Much more so than cocobolo. Many people have allergic reactions to cocobolo (Martin won't use it anymore for that reason) but almost everybody is affected by Osage orange. It is a toxic reaction rather than an allergic reaction.
While they have a rich array of names, the fruit does not taste so rich. They are actually bitter, and most people would consider them unpalatable, but you can eat them. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, the fleshy fruit is about 80 percent digestible.
Vividly yellow to yellowish-green in color, the Osage orange fruit has a fruity, citric fragrance and is inedible to humans, even though naturalists say the seeds are edible.
So sought after was the Osage orange bow, it was used by Shawnee and Wyandotte in Ohio and by the Blackfeet in Montana. These bows must have been traded and traveled over a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Indians had other uses for the Osage orange. The stout wood was well suited for war clubs and tomahawk handles.
In addition to being called Osage orange, it has also been referred to as Hedge Apple, Horse Apple, and Mock Orange. The French settlers called it Bois d'Arc (bow wood) after they discovered the native American Osage tribe used the wood to fashion their superior bows. The wood was amazingly resilient.
Triclopyr amine salt herbicides (Garlon 3A, Tahoe 3A) are selective herbicides that will not harm grasses or sedges that effectively control Osage orange when applied as cut-surface treatments.
Not widely planted in the Midwest until the mid-nineteenth century, Osage oranges belong to the Moraceae family, to which mulberries and figs also belong, and the skin of the fruit often has a pleasant, sweet, slightly citrusy smell.
Perhaps surprisingly, the fruits, though tough and sticky, are readily torn apart by squirrels that seek out the pulp and seeds. Even northern bobwhite consume the seeds when encountering a torn-apart fruit. Even more, white-tailed deer, especially bucks, consume the fruits from time to time.
The fruits secrete a sticky white latex when cut or damaged. Despite the name "Osage orange", it is not related to the orange. It is a member of the mulberry family, Moraceae. Due to its latex secretions and woody pulp, the fruit is typically not eaten by humans and rarely by foraging animals.
Caution should be used not to load up a wood stove with too much of it. This does not mean it is not good firewood, some people love to burn it, you just have to be careful with it and keep your fires smaller than you would with other woods.
At the other end of the spectrum, contact with the actual wood of some species can cause extreme reactions. Those woods are usually the more exotic tropical hardwoods, such as rosewood, padauk, and teak, but sassafras (a relatively common found wood) can cause breathing problems, nausea, or even cancer.
Native Americans used M. pomifera for the treatment of cancer [2]. In Bolivia, the plant sap is used for the treatment of tooth pain, and the bark and leaves are used for uterine hemorrhage [3]. Comanche Indians in North America used the Osage orange roots decoction to treat sore eyes [4].
We could find no indications that Maclura pomifera (osage orange) has any poisonous parts, including the thorns. However, any injury like that is susceptible to infection, which could be very serious. Or a piece of the thorn could still be in your foot, which also is dangerous.
Perhaps surprisingly, the fruits, though tough and sticky, are readily torn apart by squirrels that seek out the pulp and seeds. Even northern bobwhite consume the seeds when encountering a torn-apart fruit. Even more, white-tailed deer, especially bucks, consume the fruits from time to time.
A tea made from the roots has been used as a wash for sore eyes. The inedible fruits contain antioxidant and fungicidal compounds. A 10% aqueous infusion and an extract diluted 1:1 have cardiovascular potentialities.
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