Osage Orange, Hedge Apple, Horse Apple, Bow Wood, Bodark (Maclura pomifera)
“Horse-high, bull-strong, hog-tight”. That’s how Hedge Apple fences were described a century or so ago. With their strong wood, low growth, and sharp thorns, countless thousands of miles of Osage Orange fence rows were planted across the country by the early settlers, and countless more were planted as windbreaks during the Dust Bowl.
Osage Orange is native to Texas and a few counties in Oklahoma and Arkansas. But according to the USDA Silvics Manual, “Osage-orange (Maclura pomifera) produces no sawtimber, pulpwood, or utility poles, but it has been planted in greater numbers than almost any other tree species in North America”. Today, Osage Orange is found in all of the lower 48 states. The genus Maclura is named for the Scottish-born American geologist William Maclure, regarded as the Father of American Geology. An earlier name, “Toxycon pomifera”, relates to its poisonous properties.
Hedge Apples have alternately-arranged, simple leaves. That is, the leaves are not attached to the tree in pairs, directly across from each other, nor do they have leaflets in groups of 3, 5, 7, etc., that share a stem, which is the case for compound leaves. The dark green, shiny leaves are 2.5 to 5.0 inches long, 1.5 to 3.0 inches wide, and take the shape of pointed ovals with smooth edges. The leaves are deciduous, and turn yellow before falling off in the autumn.
Photos by Mort Schmidt.
Osage Orange flowers are yellow-green and occur in small clusters in the spring or early summer, after the appearance of leaves. As is true of most green flowers, they are wind pollinated. Brightly colored flowers are better at attracting pollinators. Over the summer, the female flowers develop into distinct green fruits known as “Hedge Apples”. The hard, fleshy fruits occur in spheres as much as 5 inches in diameter and actually consist of as many as 200 separate fruits. Osage Orange trees belong to the Moraceae, or mulberry family, together with Jackfruit and Breadfruit, which have similar-looking fruit. The bumpy surface of Hedge Apples are the reason they are sometimes known as “Monkey Brains”. Osage Oranges are dioecious, with fruits occurring only on female trees. Interestingly, female trees can produce fruits in the absence of male trees, but they lack seeds.
Perhaps foragers become accustomed to the annual crop of fruits even if they only disperse the seeds whenever the females are fertilized. Unlike some trees, such as oaks and hickories, there are no mast years – fruit production is consistent from year to year. Osage Orange is extremely cold-hardy for a southern tree, suggesting that it might have been propagated by Ice Age megafauna, like mammoths and mastodons, whose disappearance caused the tree’s range to shrink. However, similar modern animals, such as elephants do not effectively propagate the seeds, casting doubt on the theory.
Maclura pomifera is one of several common trees in Ohio with thorns. The solitary thorns are under an inch long and unbranched. Honeylocust thorns are much larger and typically have multiple points. Black Locust thorns occur in pairs. However, Osage Orange thorns are usually most prolific on younger branches, and might not be obvious on older, larger trees. Osage fruits sometimes ooze a sticky, milky sap, as can young twigs when they are crushed or cut.
Presumably, the orange in Osage Orange comes from the color of the bark, roots, and heartwood. The bark furrows and surfaces, when cut or broken away, are typically a distinct orange. The roots and wood are distinctly orange, indeed, the wood was once chipped and boiled to extract an orange dye.
Osage Oranges are often recognizable by their craggy growth. Like their mulberry cousins, they typically tend to bend toward the ground, although occasionally they grow straight and tall. Hedge Apple’s low, craggy growth, together with sharp thorns, made it ideal for building, or rather, growing fences. Farmers dug trenches, buried seeds, and grew thousands of miles of fences and windbreaks before the invention of barbed wire. And because Osage Orange is highly durable (rot resistant), dead trees were later made into fence posts that withstood decades of burial and exposure to weather. Whenever I find Hedge Apples in the woods, I look for remnant fences and fence posts, and half the time, I find them.
Mature Osage Oranges typically have a height of around 50 feet and a trunk diameter of approximately 2.0 feet. Ohio’s Champion Osage Orange, located in Hamilton County, has a height of 75 feet, a trunk diameter of 7.0 feet, and a crown width of 81 feet.
ID Summary: Smooth, somewhat shiny, pointed oval leaves. Rugged, orange-ish bark, especially furrows, and orange roots. Large green spherical fruits on females. Low, craggy shape, and sharp thorns common on young growth, and commonly located along fence lines and property boundaries.
Similar Trees: Mature bark resembles Black Locust, but Black Locust has small leaflets and flat seed pods. In winter, single thorns on younger twigs distinguish it from Black Locust with its paired thorns.
Although native to just Texas and small parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, Osage Orange is common in most of the eastern U.S., and grows in all of the lower 48 states. According to Lucy Braun’s The Woody Plants of Ohio, Osage is probably found in every county in Ohio. The Columbus, Ohio Street Tree Inventory doesn’t list Maclura pomifera among the City’s trees, but recommends planting it, together with other medium-height trees. Hedge Apples are not widely used in landscaping, perhaps due to their large fruits and thorns, but they are distinctive and interesting. The Street Tree Inventory indicates that Hedge Apple is an Ohio native, but it’s not, at least not since the Ice Age. It is, however, naturalized, and has been for well over a century.
Hedge Apple is often found in moist soils, but is also drought resistant. It also tolerates cold and resists insects, including termites. Osage also prefers full to partial sun, and tolerates urban conditions, including road salt and air pollution. One of the few conditions it does not thrive in is acidic soil.
Osage Orange lumber has a Janka hardness of 2,620 lbf and a density of 0.86 g/cc, according to the Wood Database, compared to the median of my list of 73 Ohio trees of 1,075 lbf and 0.64 g/cc. Osage Orange is the hardest wood that grows in Ohio – White Oak has a Janka hardness of 1,350 lbf. Osage Orange’s hardness can make it challenging to work with, but it turns, glues, and stains well, and despite its hardness, it does not dull cutting tools especially quickly. However, due to Osage Orange’s crooked growth, it’s most suitable for smaller items, and much of the commercially available Osage lumber comes from Argentine Osage Orange (Maclura tinctoria).
Hedge Apple’s high resistance to decay and insects make it the perfect wood for fence posts. Ideally, the posts are set while the wood is still “green”, because it is far more difficult to put staples in dry Osage Orange. According to the USDA Silvics website, “Osage-orange heartwood is the most decay-resistant of all North American timbers and is immune to termites. The outer layer of sapwood is very thin; consequently, even small-diameter stems give long service as stakes and posts. About 3 million posts were sold annually in Kansas during the early 1970’s”. Like Black Locust, Hedge Apple was also used to hold insulators on electric and telephone poles, due to its hardness and durability. Its decay resistance also made Osage Orange well suited for railroad ties, and in earlier times, wagon-wheel hubs. Primitive roads were once made of wooden boards, and Osage was sometimes cut into paving blocks, something like the brick roads and sidewalks of later years. Osage Orange is North America’s best wood for making archery bows because of its hardness and springiness, and its rot resistance would be an advantage when hunting in inclement weather. Woodwind instruments are sometimes made of Hedge Apple, due to its density and tonal qualities.
Maclura pomifera burns extremely hot, not unlike coal for its BTU value. The bark was high in tannins, and was sometimes used to tan leather. Yellow and orange dyes were extracted from the roots and wood. Today, Osage’s tolerance of soil conditions make it suitable for soil stabilization and mine reclamation, providing that the soil isn’t too acidic.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Great Plains Shelterbelt project kicked off in 1934 in an attempt to stop soil erosion. By the beginning of WWII, hundreds of millions of trees, many of them Osage Oranges, had been planted. Later, many of the Hedge Apple trees were cut down and made into fence posts, some of which probably still stand.
According to the Specialty Produce website, “It is recommended to avoid eating the flesh of the fruits and only extracting the seeds for use as a roasted snack. Roasted Osage Orange seeds are said to have a rich, savory, and nutty taste reminiscent of the flavor of sunflower seeds mixed with popcorn”.
Osage Orange was the best wood for making bows, and was traded over long distances for making bows and war clubs. But the American Indians seem to have had relatively few other uses for it, other than these listed in the Native American Ethnobotany Database:
- Comanche – An extract derived from the roots was used as a wash for sore eyes,
- Kiowa – The outer part of roots was used for a yellow dye,
- Kiowa – The wood was used for the staff held by a singer in the peyote ceremony,
- Pima – A yellow dye was extracted from the roots and inner wood,
While Hedge Apple’s milky sap can cause an allergic reaction, the sap is used by some to remove warts.
Osage Orange’s fruit is not favored by wildlife, but deer and fox squirrels are said to eat it, and crossbill birds peck out the seeds. The Osage Orange Sphinx Moth feeds on the leaves and flower buds, as does the Fruit-Tree Leafroller. The bitter, white latex sap in leaves and twigs is unpalatable to hoofed mammals, but deer, cattle, and horses will consume them in the absence of better browse.
The Dragon Oak website associates Maclura pomifera with masculine energy, and says that Osage Orange is associated with the elements of Spirit, Earth, and Fire. It recommends Osage wands “in magicks dealing with astral healing, spirit guides, and animal guides. This wood aides in the pursuit of goals and passions”.
The first tree specimen that Meriwether Lewis sent back to Thomas Jefferson was the Osage Orange, which he obtained from the Osage Indians, near present-day Saint Louis. According to Jeffrey G. Meyer’s America’s Famous and Historic Trees, Lewis and Clark took an Osage Orange tree to Patrick Henry’s daughter, which she immediately planted at Henry’s estate, Red Hill, in Virginia. It is now one of the largest Osage Oranges, and one of the country’s most revered trees. (However, the Monumental Trees website indicates that it was planted around 1700 +50 years, predating any visit by Lewis and Clark).
I normally much prefer native trees, and wince when I see non-natives growing in the woods. But I make an exception for this southern neighbor, which was, perhaps, once native to the Midwest and eastern U.S. Horse-high, bull-strong, hog-tight.
Image by Mort Schmidt.
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You can also listen to my talks on Ohio Broadleaf Tree Identification on YouTube, Part 1 and Part 2.
Mort Schmidt – I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I learned so much. I was aware of the tree being used as a fence line, but I didn’t know about the Male/Female dynamics and the stories about the wood and it’s uses. I like how you mention a “historical” fact, but noted the possible inconsistencies…for example the timing of the Lewis and Clark group. Thanks for being an interesting and good writer.