As a kid on the farm, I remember seeing a lot of what we called hedge apple trees. Are those still around? JH

Yes, hedge apples are still around. However, hedge apple is just one name for these trees. They are also known as horse apple, bois d’arc, monkey ball, monkey brains, yellow-wood, mock orange, and Osage orange. The irony here is that these trees are not apple, orange, or monkey trees (monkey trees?), but are actually members of the mulberry family. For our purposes, we’ll call them Osage oranges.

The name hedge apple comes from the fact that early settlers would plant Osage orange trees in rows to serve as a kind of fence between the vegetable garden and their livestock. The use of these thorny trees for this purpose continued until barbed was invented in 1874. After the invention of barbed wire, Osage orange wood was used as fence posts to hold the barbed wire due to its strength and resistance to wood rot. Apparently when using the wood for fence posts, they needed to use the wood while it was still green because, if the wood aged, it was difficult to get the staples in to hold the barbed wire.

The bois d’arc name is French which translates to bow wood because the wood from Osage orange trees was strong, durable, and flexible making it highly valued as wood for bows. A Scottish botanist who traveled throughout the interior of the United States in the early 19^th century recorded that a bow made from Osage orange wood could be traded for a horse and a blanket. I know nothing about trading values of that era, but this does seem to indicate these bois d’arc wood bows were highly valued. Today some duck calls are also made from Osage orange wood.

The wood from these trees is naturally yellow but will fade to a medium brown when exposed to sunlight. If Osage orange wood is allowed to dry out properly, it is one of the hottest burning woods available.

Osage orange trees can get fairly large, growing to between 40 and 60 feet in height and they can live up to 250 years. The largest known specimen of the Osage orange can be found on George Washington’s River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia. It is 58 feet tall, with a crown spread of about 90 feet. Best estimates date this tree as at least 200 years old.

Osage orange trees were one of the trees used by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s as a way to help prevent soil erosion. Because of this, thousands of miles of Osage orange trees were planted during this project. While these trees were native to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, they can now be found in all 48 states of the continental United States.

In spite of all this information about the wood of the Osage orange, it’s most noticeable attribute is not the wood, but it’s fruit. These light green fruits are hard to miss since they run from 4 to 6 inches in diameter; about the size of a softball. When these fruits ripen, they fall to the ground. As a kid, we would throw the fruits back and forth with our neighbors. A window may or may not have been broken once or twice during these games. I’ll never tell.

The appearance of these roughly textured fruits are probably how they got the nickname monkey brains. The rough surface of these fruits is actually made up of a lot of small, seeded fruits that have grown together to form the ball. One downside to these fruits is that they contain a milky juice that can cause irritation to the skin. So, when handling, be sure to wear gloves. Even though folklore identifies the fruit as poisonous to livestock, several studies have been conducted showing this to be false.

So, if they’re not poisonous, does any animal eat these fruits? Amazingly, even though the fruits are tough, squirrels can tear them apart and eat the pulp and seeds. Some birds will also eat the seeds if they come across a fruit that has been torn apart. White tailed deer, especially bucks have been known to eat the fruits as well.

There are numerous stories about compounds in the fruits being used to make a good insect repellant. However, research has not confirmed these claims. While it has been found that some compounds found in the fruit do have insect repellant properties, the concentrations found in the fruit are too low to serve as a repellant on their own. Now you know. See you in the garden and watch out for flying Osage oranges!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org.

Photo: Franklin Bonner, USFS (ret.), Bugwood.org