#osage-orange

[1bee2a]

We do know how it spreads naturally! By a very cool animal :) Unfortunately... they're extinct :(

Giant Land Sloths!

They're also why the tree has such prominent thorns that inspired barbed wire. Giant land sloths climbing into the tree for the fruit could damage it a lot, but they did eat the fruit and spread it around.

What spreads it around now? Luck I suppose...

(I actually am in a dendrology class now and learned all of this recently!)

i'm feeling autistic about plants so, maclura pomifera

It's a small North American tree commonly known as the Osage orange or "hedge-apple"

Before barbed wire was invented, it was used to make living fences; when you kept pruning it, it would sprout a thick impenetrable wall of thorny shoots.

The wood's properties are also insane: it's super-strong, burns really hot, and is highly resistant to rotting. It is said to have been VERY valued by Native Americans for making into bows.

However it produces these

DEEPLY CURSED fruits that are huge and inedible. Not poison. They just suck. They're hard, woody and secrete weird latex.

And they produce SO MANY it weighs the whole tree down

Before colonization it was found only in a small patch of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Now they're everywhere. In the Bluegrass region of Kentucky you see them loaded down with fruit all over the place.

HOWEVER we have no idea how it's supposed to spread naturally. No living animal is any good at seed dispersal. It's like the sunfish of trees.

Why, Maclura pomifera. Why are you like this

[homeofhousechickens]

High Tension I missed you

I have been going through a lot recently

But it's nothing like you have had to deal with right?

Hope to see you again soon.

High Tension is a 150 year old Osage Orange Tree that was at some point split down the middle, likely due to a lightning strike or storm damage. It is now growing at such an angle that the wood is under 16 tons of pressure. The tree almost resembles a braided rope as the living wood intertwines with the dead.

[geopsych]

I found an osage orange on my walk. I didn’t know there’s a tree in town. I know of some a few miles out. I think I’ll start a collection of things plants made to feed creatures now extinct. There’s a Kentucky coffee tree in a nearby cemetery and of course some catalpas. 🤔 what else?

People have said pawpaws and avocados. What about horse chestnuts (conkers)? Magnolia pods, I guess?

[summerwages]

Saturdays blooms..

[uxbridge]

Old trees at Big Beech Woods

[worms-go-here]

What is this big green thing?

if you'd like to tag the region you live in also that'd be interesting to see as well!

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Fruit du Maclura pomifera appelé couramment oranger des Osages ou bois d'arc est un arbre d'origine nord-américaine appartient à la même famille que les mûriers. Le Maclura est monotypique, ce qui signifie qu'il n'en existe qu'une seule espèce. Il se développe naturellement dans le sud des États-Unis. Il tire son nom des Oranger des Osages, une tribu indienne qui utilisait le bois du Maclura notamment pour la confection des arcs et des haches. Sa couronne est large et plus ou moins aplatie. Étant donné ses branches très épineuses, il est souvent utilisé comme arbre de haie en Amérique du Nord. Ses feuilles sont de forme variable, bien que le sommet du limbe soit toujours longuement acuminé. Elles deviennent jaunes en automne. Il s'agit d'un arbre dioïque ; il existe donc des spécimens mâles et des spécimens femelles. Il faudra donc un arbre avec des fleurs mâles pour produire du pollen et une autre arbre qui produit des fleurs femelles. Si fécondé cette femelle peut portes des gros fruits ronds de la taille d'une belle orange. Sa floraison discrète est suivie de l'apparition de fruits aromatiques rappelant quelque peu les oranges. Leur peau verruqueuse est initialement jaune verdâtre et vire au jaune orangé par la suite. Résistance moyenne au froid. Le fruits n'est pas comestible étant extrêmement amer. Il y également le cudranier de chine ou mûrier chinois de son nom latin cudrania tricuspidata renommé de nos jours maclura tricuspidata, il a un développement en mode nonchalance, dont il faut savoir attendre et mûrir dans la placidité, être serein armé de cette vertu de la patience qui plus est sachez que les premières fructifications apparaissent au minimum au bout de 10 à 15 années de croissances à partir d'un fuseau ou d'un scion, de plus qui n'est point négligeable ses fruits plus petits et rougeâtres sont comestibles et succulents. Et un avantage il se greffe très bien sur le maclura pomifera l'oranger des Osage, le fait qu'ils sont de la même famille celui de moraceae. Ainsi de cette greffe rendra la fructification encore plus précoce et plus importante, en âge adulte produit plus d'une centaine de kilos.

[creature-wizard]

Speaking of "natural remedies that suck"...remember when people were convinced that eating "horse apples" (the Osage Orange) would cure them of cancer because "Cows eat them and don't get cancer!" What a bunch of fools.

I know that people want cheaper medical options than what we're getting, but snakeoil salesmen (or, in this case, horse apple salesmen) keep pouncing on that desperation. Hopefully we can continue to encourage people to be skeptical of all of this.

~Jasper of @jasper-pagan-witch

This is the first I've heard of it, but yeah, that's a great example of a "natural remedy" that's a complete scam.

[metastablephysicist]

i need to get more tattoos.

[homeofhousechickens]

(Throws this at you)

[nomaishuttle]

finally found out what these cunts are called suffice to say im gonna kill them all

[gibbsfarms]

Fall Decor

[crudlynaturephotos]

[kebbopulos]

The Osage orange (pictured above) is also called a bodark fruit! Although the fruit is inedible, you can roast the seeds! They're very difficult to pick out of the fruit though. It is believed to have once been almost exclusively eaten and spread by megafauna, but today they are still eaten by squirrels and deer (though due to their toughness are not a preferred food source)

Despite the names "hedge apple" and "osage orange", they are more closely related to mulberries!

Okay fuck it if this post reaches 666k notes by the end of 2023 I'll practise basic self care

Why 666k? Because it's funny and impossible so good fucking luck

[tsuga-of-mars]

This is my emotional support Osage Orange tree fruit that's been at my desk for it's second week now. 💚

It's like nature's own stress / fidget ball. It's hefty enough to toss around, slightly squishy to squeeze, the surface is very tactile and bumpy to fidget, and has a nice scent.

[jamgraphicdesign]

Drawtober '23 - Treetober

1/31 - Osage Orange