Talk:Maclura pomifera

Discussion
The article indicates that the fruits float..? I haven't met a single osage orange that floats. They sink like rocks, at least in Alabama. Can this be clarified?

My dog has taken to gnawing on them, since we found a couple of them that were on dry land (read: *weren't* at the bottom of the stream) at the park... I'm only mildly concerned about this, considering the article. (at least nobody's allergic to them.)

- From the article:
 * Osaga orange is very often mixed with testicles. That's reason why there are called as osaga orange.

What does this mean, if anything?

Do people eat them?

No they don't. The line was infantile nonsense. But, I've returned material on the co-evolution of Osage Oranges with large fruit-dispersing mammals. Very interesting new information. Why was this removed? Wetman 06:05, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * From what I read they are eaten by squirrels and horses will eat them, so the fact that there are no longer "large" mammals that eat this fruit in a setting in which most large mammals have become extinct seems not to be a very complete observation. For example, no mention is made of what is present in the wilds of Texas and Arkansas that could eat the fruit and aid in dispersal. I'm not sure that there is an absolute correlation between large fruits = large mammals for dispersal. However, my main concern was that the article seemed to have accumulated a number of little errors of fact and without a source, it was difficult to confirm which "facts" came from where. No problem leaving it in if you have a source (as cited). -- Marshman 17:16, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

From the article:
 * As horses and other livestock will eat the fruit, and the horse evolved in North America,
 * It did? According to most sources, horses were introduced to North America by the Spanish. Can someone who is confident of their horse history please check this. Securiger 14:21, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * The early precursors to the modern horses (not very horselike) evolved in North America according to the fossil record. These forms have been long extinct, but the modern horses (Genus Equus, includes modern relatives like the zebra) came to be distributed widely on all the continents. In the late Pleistocene, these died out in North and South America along with a great many of the other large mammals on the two continents. This "event" opened the way for the modern horse to be later reintroduced to North/South America by the Spanish. - Marshman 17:40, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Can American Bison eat them and distribute the seed successfully? If domestic cattle ("other livestock"??) can and do, I'd think Bison would, too - MPF 22:23, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hyphen?
Moved to hyphenated form Osage-orange, as this is the form used in the United States Forest Service checklist of native & naturalized trees - MPF 12:59, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * But I've got a couple of dictionaries here, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com, that don't use any hyphen.--BillFlis (talk) 10:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

How about a note on pronunciation? Is Osage pronounced "oh sage" or "oh sah gay"?
 * In Missouri, we say "oh sage". The same pronounciation is used for Osage County, the Osage River, the town of Osage Beach, and the Osage Nation that lived here.
 * It's "oh sage" in Illinois as well.
 * It's "oh sage" in northern Delaware and Southeastern Pennsylvania, but more commonly it's a "monkey ball tree". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.27.178.252 (talk) 18:36, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

osage orange
Hi I live in Hamilton, Ontario. I have 5 of these trees on my front lawn. People come from all over in October to collect the fruit. It is ususally the same people back every year. They take the fruit away in bag fulls and use them for decorations. The teachers take them to school for the children to paint and make things out of them. Would you know if there are more trees around in my area and how would they have gotten here in the first place. Thanks for you information on the trees. Jean


 * We had them all over Centerville, Ohio as well. --67.8.217.155 (talk) 19:55, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

From the article: "Fall color is a bright yellow-green with a faint orange odor."

This seems confusing. How can a color have an odor (fall color has a faint odor)? Furthermore, how can an odor be described in terms of color (odor is faint orange)? Perhaps the second part means that the odor is orange-like? Regardless, the sentence still does not appear to make sense. Thanks for clarifying! MarkBuckles 07:32, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

We have seen about 4 of these trees in NW. Georgia. They're in the Chickamauga Battle field. We keep reading about them, but nothing ever says if people can EAT them or not. It says the fruit has a chemical in it that kills cancer cells. There has got to be more or something, that you can do with these things. lol. ( Jeff & Kelli ) Rossville, GA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.123.127.79 (talk) 01:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Are my husband and I the only ones that think this "hedge-apple" looks like a BRAIN?**

Revamp
It appears no one is currently taking care of this page. The references and links had been deleted by a vandal in March and were still missing. The written material was all over the place. Questions on this page have largely gone unanswered for a while. I readded the ref's and links to the main page and copyedited and organized all the info into some semblance of coherence. Hope this is helpful. Best wishes. --MarkBuckles 00:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Cattle
Just to clarify: cattle do eat the fruit (I saw a cow eat one the other day). I'm not sure about pigs or sheep, but I would bet pigs do since they will eat anything. Dukemeiser 23:39, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I spent many a fall in upstate New York picking these mock oranges for my grandmother. One grandmother lived in the country the other in the city. My city grandmother swore that they kept cockroaches at bay, and I believe they did. I would pick them on the farm and take them to the city. Other than that they are useless. The pigs won't even eat them. They used the trees along the stone hedge rows to keep the cows in.

I'm not sure how this is done. I'm not even sure if this will go through. I reside in Berks County, Pennsylvania. I'm not even sure if this statement can extend outside of this general territory, because I have yet to notice or see them outside of this area, mostly because I don't travel outside of this area... So I suppose this is to say, I can't speak for anyone who lives in the counties surrounding Berks, however.... We have many, many, many of these trees all over the place. I don't necessarily think this is all that outstandingly important to mention in the article, except that I suppose I assume that because it was mentioned how they are so prevalent in the mid-south-western states that I would share about how incredibly abundant they are in my own backyard. Here, in PA. Perhaps my viewpoint of what abundant means is slightly different from what it actually means. I think there are alot here. So, do what you will with my rambling jargen. I just wanted to share... because that's what I was raised to do. Yes? 151.201.158.83 22:10, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Contradictions
The height of "8-15 m" mentioned in the intro is a lot shorter than the "40 to 60 ft" given farther down. Also, the distributions (under "Distribution" and the other that was given under "History") did not jibe. I have moved both sentences on distribution under Distribution, where they can now contradict each other in proximity.--BillFlis (talk) 10:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)


 * To alleviate the discrepancies in range and occurrence pointed out above, I have re-written the distribution section based on the best source I found available and have added a range map from that source. Pinethicket (talk) 00:01, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Contradiction remains. Victor Engel (talk) 21:04, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

This is a great skunk repellent as well! Works great in my area!

A Cain —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelawcain (talk • contribs) 01:32, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Deer Eat it
From the study:  "White-Tailed Deer: Their Foods & Management in the Cross Timbers"
 * It is also noteworthy that prior to this study, osage orange was thought to be a nuisance plant with relatively little wildlife food value, most of which was attributed to the use of its fruit by fox squirrels. The results of this study indicate that osage orange is of considerable importance to Cross Timbers deer.

Source: http://www.noble.org/Ag/Wildlife/DeerFoods/HabitatReq5.html -- CityEcology 13:55, 18 February 2008 (Thom)

What?
"4-5 trees of this unusual trees growing in town of Dakovo, Croatia, Europe. Mystery is that nobody knows when it was planted and by who."

Someone please fix these sentences —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.249.202.200 (talk) 02:59, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Colloquial Terms
"In other parts of the country (ranging from Long Island to as far west as Western Pennsylvania), the fruit is referred to as "Monkey Balls" (origin uncertain)."

I grew up in greater Cleveland, and at the end of my street was one of these trees. We called the fruit "Monkey Balls" so I would suggest modifying the geographical range's western boundary to "Northeastern Ohio." As to the origin of the term - I have no idea. That's just what we called it! Tom Georges (talk) 18:39, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

In Missouri my grandparents and parents have told me that they were called "Nigger Eggs" I realize that this is an unwholesome term but it is true. Basically in southern rural Missouri blacks were so poor they predominantly lived in shacks in the woods and people would wonder where they came from when they saw them so hence the name. This is probably related to the term monkey balls as well.

Furniture
I've seen beautiful lawn furniture made of hedge wood - exactly once! Seems rarely used in woodworking. I am thinking of researching this topic for reliable references and adding a new section to this article. If other editors have seen good references, please list them here and we can collaborate on this section. I might be able to get a good picture of the one set of lawn furniture that I saw locally. Bridgettttttte babblepoop 10:59, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

osage tree in Rockland County
There is a osage tree on the old Doodletown Road that is part of the 1776 trail in Bear Mtn state park. On a cub scout trip for Pelham Pack 1, we picked up the fruit and had it identified from a botanist at the Bronx Zoo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fearless098 (talk • contribs) 20:25, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Bow wood
I've read that osage orange is among the best bow woods in numerous places. It might be worth adding.66.56.226.142 (talk) 02:17, 27 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I know two traditional bow makers in Oklahoma that  use wood from  the Bois D'arc tree exclusively, hint: that's French  and it means "bow wood" that's literally the common name for the tree in this area, along with  Osage orange and hedge apple, most people you talk to  will know which  tree you mean  regardless of which  name you use.  Point is, one of those names literally means "bow wood". There should be an entire section of this article relating to that and the reasoning behind that, as it is the main traditional usage of the tree. 75.88.34.188 (talk) 06:20, 21 August 2022 (UTC)

Range map is misleading
The range map is highly misleading-- they're all over the landscape here in northern Ohio. The text itself says that they are found in many places not shown in the map. The text also mentions them as being used for bows by the Osage Nation-- that is odd, since the Osage don't live anywhere near the area indicted. Geoffrey.landis (talk) 02:12, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

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Fenceposts
The article suggests that the wood from the Osage Orange tree is suitable for use as fence posts, however there should be some additional explanation or expansion on this front. For example, it is well known that one can use even an old bodark fence post to hang a pipe rail gate from. Indeed, the posts can withstand such torsional stress as may even survive tornadic activity, or even such severe environments as storms featuring twin tornados, if Choctaw sources are to be believed. 147.129.191.69 (talk) 00:43, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

"Mock Orange (mulberry)" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Mock Orange (mulberry) and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 November 3 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Plantdrew (talk) 22:45, 3 November 2022 (UTC)