Over the years I've heard many gardeners, local farmers, and landscapers say that the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is a useless thorny, gangly tree. I agree that the tree is thorny, somewhat gangly, and produces what most people think are inedible fruits that are not fit for man or beast! 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. As the mammals traveled north, south, east and west, Osage orange trees sprouted up everywhere. The trees can be found growing in most of the continental United States and in parts of Canada. The Osage orange tree is a member of the Moraceae, or mulberry family. The botanical name Maclura pomifera derives from William Maclure (1763-1840), an early American geologist.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, it is believed the tree was given the common name "Osage orange" by the Osage Indian Nation. The Osage are thought to have discovered the wood and used it for bow making. Early settlers in the United States employed the decay-resistant wood for wagon wheels and mine support posts.
In the mid-1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used Osage orange as one of the primary trees planted as windbreaks in the Works Progress Administration project to modify weather and prevent soil erosion in the Great Plains. By 1942, more than 200 million of these trees stretched over 18,000 miles. Prior to the invention of barbed wire, these thorny trees were planted as natural fencing for cattle deterrents. In the Midwest, the Osage orange is often called hedge apple.
Osage orange wood is very durable and is still used for making fence posts. If allowed to dry out, the wood burns hot and long, and has one of the highest BTU ratings of any common wood in North America. The wood is generally resistant to insect or fungal infestations, so over the past hundred or so years, homeowners have passed along an urban legend that "monkey balls" placed in a basem*nt will repel insects. I offer no real evidence on that! Osage orange wood was (and still is) used in making boats, bows, woodwind instruments, and waterfowl game calls. In the autumn, florists and crafters everywhere use the fruits as autumn decorations and centerpieces.The fruit has even become a Halloween staple used as "brains" in somewhat gory displays.
Osage orange trees and their fruits are most certainly ecologically important, environmentally welcomed, sustainable, used in agriculture and industry alike, bought and sold and generally fun for all.
