# Osage



## Tom Smart (Nov 5, 2017)

Osage Orange, bowwood, bios d'arc, hedge call it whatever. We have them here in my neighborhood of VA, but they are scattered and infrequent. I have never seen a real hedge of them. I've never seen any this big before. There were 3 this size on this property, I'm guessing 150-200 years old. Do they get this size in their native area down around TX, etc?

Reactions: Like 7 | Great Post 1 | Way Cool 3


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Nov 5, 2017)

OMG cut it down and send boxes to all WB members!!!

Reactions: Agree 3


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## Tony (Nov 5, 2017)

Yes, they get big down here too. Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Lou Currier (Nov 6, 2017)

WTH are those things on the ground


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## Tom Smart (Nov 6, 2017)

Lou Currier said:


> WTH are those things on the ground


That's the fruit from the Osage. It's not good for much besides making more Osage. Can't eat it but squirrels will go after the seeds. Some folks use it for fall decoration and some believe they will repel spiders if placed around the house, basement etc. They are actually sold for that purpose. I saw a Craigslist add the other day asking $1.50 each.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## rocky1 (Nov 6, 2017)

Yep...Used to see them in the grocery store in ND every fall, used to repel bugs in the home. Most claimed they worked. ,


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## Sprung (Nov 6, 2017)

rocky1 said:


> Most claimed they worked.



We picked up a few and tried it once. Gave up on that idea when the spiders built their webs on them!

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 2 | Informative 1


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## Tom Smart (Nov 6, 2017)

Sprung said:


> We picked up a few and tried it once. Gave up on that idea when the spiders built their webs on them!


Science says there are in fact chemical compounds that have repellent properties in the Osage oranges , but they have to be extracted and concentrated to work. Just spreading them around the house, whole or cut up, will not. But, hey, if someone is willing to give $1.50 each for 'em....

Reactions: Informative 1


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## gman2431 (Nov 6, 2017)

We got em that big up here also.

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 1


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## greenleecustomcalls (Nov 6, 2017)

Where the name Horse apple and Hedge Apple for Osage Orange comes from. So many different names for a tree, This list is long, , bowwood, *bois d'arc*, *bodark*, *bow-wood*, *yellow-wood* and *mock orange and im sure I am missing a few. *


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## Ralph Muhs (Nov 6, 2017)

Well I don't know about other names, but hedge or hedge Apple was and is the commonly used name in southern Illinois. Early landowners planted them along property lines to mark boundaries. They were so thick animals coulden't get through the "hedge". Some of these "hedge rows" are still there serving the same purpose. As young boys, my brothers and I used the "hedge apples" as ammunition when fighting wars with cousins. The sticky sap stains fingers brown, and it doesn't wash off easily. And firewood from these trees burns extremely hot and sparks like fireworks when a stove door is opened. And because it never seems to rot, it makes great fence posts.


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## Strider (Nov 8, 2017)

I have a few small saplings (not even that)...I hand picked those seeds out and it feels terrible, mooshy and soft...made me kinda sick the odor did. Don't horses eat them? 

I would plant them in my yard for a fence, but I have a ledge next to my house, and don't want someone to get hit. They weigh a ton!


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## Bill12035 (Nov 11, 2017)

It's very popular for making bows. I see the staves on eBay all the time. Personally I think it's a beautiful hard and dense wood. I have a few small pieces of it from a hedge row in western NY.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Robert Baccus (Nov 12, 2017)

In the mid 1800,s there was a huge industry on the TX/OKL. border--red river area--gathering the seeds and shipping them out in wagon loads for fences on the prarie. Very lucrative too. Then some ass invented barbed wire and POOOF. It did distribute the tree all over from a very restricted range--good for us huh.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Strider (Nov 12, 2017)

I only found two trees in my home country. One in front of my college, in the garden...after playing with the brains I wanted to find out what the hell they were (unlike anything I've ever seen before), so I found somehow a local term for the plant. I have used Google and Latin to find out more...and poof! Here comes osage orange. I knew about osage loooooong before actually realizing it was in front of me. And yes, the canopy somehow resembles honey locust regarding impregnebility, but the bark has a nice yellowish tone to it, distinctive. The trees I will not touch nor prune. I like them to grow! 
And then I found out there was another one, some 100 feet away from it, hidden in red maple and black locusts. 

However, speaking to some folk in the south of my country I found out there are many of these trees next to the railway. Does anyone know why?


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## rocky1 (Nov 12, 2017)

My guess would be they used the fruit to rid box cars of insects or vermin, and they fell through the cracks, seeding the tree along the way.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Robert Baccus (Nov 12, 2017)

Osage , by the way, is one of a group we foresters learned that is called The lost tropicals. Everything about them is found only in the tropics usually. Several species learned to livein our temperate climate after evolving in the tropics. Mullberry, catalpa water and black locusts, mesquite and others thrive here now. They tend to have large leaves, durable wood, large flowers and fruit and open airy crowns and fast growth. China berry, mimosa, chinese tallow, and many eucalipus species have been introduced and naturalized as well.

Reactions: Informative 2


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