Bad Idea, shaking the Osage Orange tree

13 years ago

I saw one, on the neutral ground (median strip) on Dessau Road in East Austin, between Braker and Palmer in a low part of the road. Thinking my sister would want some of the bizarre fruit as 'decorative' things to put in a bowl for Thanksgiving, I parked in a subdivision, crossed three lanes of traffic, and grabbed for a branch to shake some down. YEE OW the thorns are bad, and the dang things are HEAVY when they fall on you. I got a whole mess of them but someone else will have to take them to New Orleans because I am no way going to try to explain them to TSA.

Why on earth did such a useless thing come to be? The thorns are so bad the city will have to take out the tree: any fallen branches will take out tires like mad.

Only a mad arboreal nativist would plant one of those monsters, but there it is out there on Dessau where it had to have been deliberatly placed. Weird, weird tree.

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Comments (14)

dwf1
13 years ago
I grew up knowing it as Horse Apple but it is called several other names including four letter ones. However it is only one of many trees that have the ability to bite back. Unlike the mesquite the Maclura pomifera is a native. Another tree most folks don't realize has thorns is the Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana), they have wonderful white blooms early in the spring. Watch out for the many well protected native shrubs also.

Here is a link that might be useful: It's A Native Tree
ogrose_tx
13 years ago
LOL, not nice, but the thought of other motorists watching you shake the tree has me laughing. Also, the idea of how TSA would handle this would be interesting I'm sure (use your imagination here...;)
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Hedge around here grows well in the muck land used for growing mint. Wet area shouldn't bother it a lot. Muck land does dry up in late summer most years, allowing harvest of the mint. Also grows well on the drier rolling grounds, even in heavy dirt with clay. Hedge here is used more for land protection, not fencing. Planted for preventing erosion, dryout of soil, dirt blowing away. Some of those hedges must be from the Depression era plantings. I am seeing a lot of them being cut to allow larger machinery use, bigger fields. They are not maintained for animals, like they would have been back when planted. My grandfather had hedges, harvested it regularly. Used it, sold it. It was a crop for the livestock farmer, who would have regular fence upkeep. However, grandpa said hedge was about the hardest wood around after black walnut. He didn't seem to have post rot problems of other farmers. He did have a lot of gravel type soil in the hilly pasture areas. He pointed out his big corner post, was about 60 years old, still solid. Used daily as the gate was on the other side. If I planted hedge, I would be out there to trim and thin the seedlings, set up a clean line of growth. Keep after it as saplings developed. Uncared for, hedge is a terrible mess. Tangled, fallen limbs, out growth of messy crooked trunks. Takes over a large space trying to get to the sunshine. You don't get straight up growth, orderly line of trunks for harvest, best use of the planting without attention. Removal around here is with bulldozers, cutting is very hard work with such dense wood, most don't bother. Most old hedges are about 20-30ft tall. Can depend on the ground they grow in. Then pile burns for days. I have also heard of spines on the trees, but can't remember if that is true. I don't know about the fruit, never had any in a pasture for my horses. I wouldn't offer it to them, just to be safe. I have not heard of any problems with horses chewing their wood, unlike the walnuts which will founder them if even a tiny bit is eaten. On the rosebushes, I would save my money. Ask around, someone would probably let you dig their roses out!! The hedge roses grow easily here, very quickly. Farmers would laugh hysterically at the thought of paying for them when we fight so hard to remove them!! Perhaps the roses you plan to use are a special variety, the multi-flora around here are a nusiance. Nice habitat for the animals and birds, hard on the farmer. Very aggressive growers, non-native pushing out native shrubs. You might want to check about pest plants, trees, shrubs, in your area before deciding on what to grow. Honeysuckle is a terrible pest here, but OO or hedge, doesn't seem to travel, get very pesty. Maybe seeds are too big to move around far!! Swamp roses, I picture as the wild, pink single layer flower, blooms in spring. Not as aggressive, smaller bush too. Might be different in your area. Native shrub planting will always benefit the area, attract insects and wildlife. Just not very manicured, if that will bother you. Often natives provide great benefits to the local area, so I always try to "go native" when planting.
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Don't worry Dax, I make mistakes of memory all the time. I also try and post about my mistakes as you have also, if I remember screwing up, nobody is perfect. I had read that the OO is native to Texas. The Osage indians used the tree or it's "fruit" in some fashion, and they were a Texas "indeginous" tribe. I screwed up, I remembered that OO I took pics of as growing into that tractor shelter in the background, and it is quite a distance from that tractor shelter.
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Well, I didn't want to be rude when this post came up, but I too hate this tree with a passion. I have one in my yard, and it is horrible. It puts off at least 500 horse apples each year, and I have to pick up every single one to keep my yard looking nice. Its wood is unbelievably hard, exactly like Randy says. You can wear out a chain saw in no time cutting limbs on this tree (ask me how I know :( I have several bois d arc trees in my pastures, and they're not so bad. The horses do eat the apples and they provide shade, but there is no way I would ever plant one of those nasty trees in my yard. Mine came with the yard when I bought this place, and I hate it. I've also had a couple of trees pop up from seeds, and again like Randy says, when you cut them down, they sucker like crazy and are impossible to get rid of. I'd think twice before I'd plant one if I were you.
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debndal
13 years ago
The "apples" also excrete that nasty sticky white goo. But, in their defense, they were used for foundations for homes in the early days. They are a very hard wood and it lasts forever. I bet there are still houses standing that have bodark piers. We had them on our lot in the 60's. They used to be all over the place. Don't see them very often anymore.
merrybookwyrm
13 years ago
There's at least one house I know of in Arlington that still has bodark piers from the early 1900s. I am told the piers are in fine shape. Somebody told me once that bodark comes from French "bois d'arc"-- the French trappers came up with that name because the Indians used the bodark wood for their bows. Does anyone know if that is true, or is it just a good story?
firebird1
13 years ago
If you are talking about the large green fruit, the correct spelling is bois d'arc
beachplant
13 years ago
They are also planted as living fences. Now you see why. LOL!
Tally HO!
debndal
13 years ago
Well I'm a native Texas. To me it will always be bodark! (smiles)
linda_tx8
13 years ago
Um...let me get this straight! You attacked that innocent Osage Orange tree and then got upset that it defended itself? Don't mess with Texas can be applied to many native Texas plants. Those kind of trees make one of the best bows in the world...first used as such by native Amercians and much in demand to this day. Earlier in our national history they were carefully propagated and cultivated and were much in demand to form living fences back before more modern fencing methods were possible. The fruits came in handy also, as the other name Horse Apples implies. A Bois d'Ark is living history. And I think they're an attractive landscape addition...but don't attack it!
ltcollins1949
13 years ago
That is a funny story! My Mom puts the fruit of the Osage Orange maclura pomifera (information website) under her house to deter spiders and other insects. She has been doing so all her life. Here is a website with some more interesting facts about the tree.
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
13 years ago
We have worked this wood in our furniture business. It has broken huge chisels when turning it on the lathe. Freaky scary. I tried to plant it where I live but I think it likes the soil a little less alkaline and a Bit richer.
drasaid
Original Author
13 years ago
Well, another sister took the basket to New Orleans so the TSA people only had to grope me for my 42 FFF bra (that boning is to blame.)
My OTHER sister had no desire to decorate with the things, so they remain in her yard in the basket. Conversations were started about the things though, so it was not an entire waste. Neither was the party; no exploding fried turkeys or other cuilinary disasters marred the day. No one took advantage of the open bar, and the dog did not expell bodily fluids on anyone (unlike previous festivities) Hooray!
Anyhow, I now have a few of the balls mouldering in my front bed. Hopefully none will germinate, but if they do I'm swapping those puppies out. I've had enough of this ridiculous bit of flora for a while (the lumber sounds good, but I am not a woodworker.)
princealbert
13 years ago
We used them as fence post. Some of the greener/ fresh cut ones rooted and made trees. I had many of the thorns in my bare feet as a kid and got hit on the head many times for shaking branches to get the apples for throwing ammunition.
pa
carrie751
13 years ago
My mom used them around the perimeter of the fence to deter fleas and ticks.
ykerzner
13 years ago
Osage Orange is an ecological anachronism, as in, it co-evolved with large land creatures that all died out in the last ice age. Somehow it hung on for 10,000 years, and now its fruit/seeds are dispersed by unintended varmints (and inquisitive humans, like you :)).

Bad Idea, shaking the Osage Orange tree

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Bad Idea, shaking the Osage Orange tree

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