Are they edible? How do you grow them? Do they repel
insects?
Osage
orange trees are a common sight on the Great Plains today although they were not a
widespread member of the prairie community originally. Found primarily in a limited
area centered on the Red River valley in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, they were
planted as living fences - or hedges - along the boundaries of farms, and have spread
widely from these restricted, linear beginnings. The trees are easily recognized by
their glossy, lance-shaped leaves (see illustration), and their short, stout thorns.
The name of the tree comes from the Osage tribe, which lived near the home range of the
tree, and the aroma of the fruit after it is ripe. (Find one of the fruit that
has been sitting in the sun on a balmy Indian Summer day and notice the pleasant,
orange-peel smell of the skin.) Not all of the trees will have fruit because Osage
Orange are either male or female, and only the females will bear fruit.
Photo by Jim Mason
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The fruit of the Osage Orange - the
so-called "hedge apple" - stands out vividly in an autumn treeline.
It is a large, dense, green wrinkled ball up to 6" in diameter that
often persists on the tree after the leaves have fallen off. In good years, the
branches will bend low with the combined weight of these heavy fruit. They have a
sticky, white juice within them. |
|
Are Osage
Oranges edible?
Chop one in half and you will see a pithy core surrounded by up to 200 small seeds
(smaller than sunflower seeds) that are much sought-after by squirrels. Try to
harvest these seeds for yourself and you will get a clear understanding of how much the
squirrels must like them! In addition to ripping apart the tough, stringy fruit,
there is a slimy husk around each individual seed that must also be removed before
the seed can be eaten. Nonetheless, Osage Orange trees are a magnet for every squirrel in the neighborhood. They typically sit on the ground at
the base of the tree or on a wide branch up in the tree to disassemble their prize, making
a big mess in the process. Piles of shredded hedge apple are a sure sign of
squirrels in the area. |
Photo by Jim Mason
The seeds are edible by people, but one must do like the squirrels and
pick them out of the pulpy matrix and remove the slimy husk. This is the only part
of the fruit that people can eat. Cattle are sometimes tempted to eat the fruit and
may choke on them if they do not chew them up sufficiently. |
|
| Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880's, many thousands of
miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together in a
line. The saplings were aggressively pruned to promote bushy growth. "Horse high, bull strong and hog tight."
Those were the criteria for a good hedge made with Osage Orange. Tall enough
that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push through it and
woven so tightly that even a hog could not find its way through! After barbed wire
made hedge fences obsolete, the trees still found use as a source of unbeatable fence
posts. The wood is strong and so dense that it will neither rot nor succumb to the
attacks of termites or other insects for decades. The trees also found use as an
effective component of windbreaks and shelterbelts.
How do
you grow Osage Oranges?
The tree is easily grown from the seeds, but it is a challenge to separate
the seeds from the fruit. One technique for separating the seeds is to drop a fruit
into a bucket of water and wait until it gets a little mushy, then do the separation. Late
season freezes combined with damp conditions will accomplish the same task for ones left
on the ground. Plant individual seeds taken from a fully mature fruit (wait until they
start falling on the ground). You can start them in pots inside, but you can have good
luck growing them outside in a planting bed too - its just more difficult to transplant
them when they are started in the ground.
The trees will be either male or female, and only the females will produce
hedge balls. The trees become sexually mature by age 10 and there is no easy way to
determine the gender prior to then.
The trees can grow quickly in a good location with ideal growing conditions. They make a
decent shade tree within ten years. If you are wanting to grow a hedgerow, plant
them no more than five feet apart and plan to thin them as they get bigger.
If you are considering growing them, think twice and make sure you want to do this!
The trees can spread and become a real problem in pastures. The thorny branches make
pruning difficult, and the thorns can easily cause flat tires - even through the thick
tread of a tractor tire. You certainly don't want to step on one barefoot! |
Osage Orange is a cousin to the mulberry tree. The family
resemblance can be seen in:
 | A papery orange-colored skin on the roots. |
| The structure of the fruit. (Look carefully at a hedge apple and you will see
basically a big, overgrown green mulberry!) |
Its strong yet limber branches were prized for the construction of bows by the Native
Americans. The common name "Bodark" is an altered version of the French
"bois d'arc" or "bow wood". Hunters who are interested in the
use of the wood for bows can check out OsageOrange.com.
Do Osage Oranges repel
insects and spiders?
Many people believe that the fruit of the Osage Orange will keep insects out of the
house. They will gather and place them around basement windows and other likely
locations to discourage entry by crickets and other
insects. Other people say this only works as long as the fruit is green. (Of
course, by the time the fruit is dried up, there will no longer be any bugs trying to get
inside!) Other people say it does not work at all. Research at Iowa State University
has shown that there are chemical compounds in the fruit that repel cockroaches, although
the fruit itself does not. One method that definitely works is to pick up the hedge
apple and smash the offending bug with it. That is a sure thing!
Many miles of hedgerows have been removed for various reasons over the last few
decades. The remaining hedgerows on the Great Plains are habitat islands for those
creatures that prefer the forest to the prairie. Along with the gallery forest found
next to streams and rivers, hedgerows provide a place to live for many kinds of wildlife
that would not otherwise be found on the prairie. In areas that have been converted
to agriculture, hedgerows may be the only winter shelter available for wildlife.
Osage Orange trees are the backbone of most of those hedgerows and are a distinctive
member of the flora of the Great Plains.
Learn more about the Osage Orange at Hedgeapple.com
!!
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- This page was spun by Jim Mason -
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Questions or comments? Send Email to Jim Mason 
Or write us at:
Great Plains Nature Center
6232 E. 29th Street North
Wichita, KS 67220-2200
Call: 316-683-5499
Fax: 316-688-9555 |
