Osage Orange

Maclura pomifera Origin: Pennsylvania Improvement status: Wild Seeds per packet: ~40 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial Also called "hedge apple", "horse apple," "bois d'arc", "bodark"(and sometimes "monkey brain tree"!), or simply "hedge," this typically thorny native tree is most often grown as a natural hedge — said to be "pig tight, horse high, and bull strong." First brought to the attention of non-indigenous people by Lewis and Clark, who sent cuttings to Thomas Jefferson, a mythology sprang up around Osage oranges that was very much tied up with "manifest destiny" ideology. Jonathan Turner, a professor who helped found the University of Illinois said that "God designed Osage Orange especially for the purpose of fencing the prairies." By 1869, there were an estimated 60,000 miles of Osage orange fencing across the Midwest. But by a decade or so later, barbed-wire became popular, cheap, and easier to deploy, so Osage orange hedges became far less commo