Osage Orange Fruiting Tree

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Learn about the osage orange fruit tree, the tree with small green balls, and its historical uses in fencerow plantings, bow making, fence posts, and firewood.

by Karin Deneke
If you live in a rural setting in the Midwest, chances are you’ve witnessed, on windy days in late fall, large, yellow-green fruit dropping from their host trees and hitting the ground with a noticeable thump.

Measuring between 3 and 5 inches in diameter, these missiles are heavy enough to cause damage when making contact with something fragile below.

Decades ago, when I was heading west on I-70 in Kansas in late October, my eyes repeatedly caught sight of large, round, greenish objects beneath what appeared to be fencerow trees surrounding abandoned livestock pastures. I concluded that it must be a fruit of some kind. These objects were too large and symmetrical for apples, and by no means could it be citrus fruit growing on this predominantly wide-open short grass prairie, a landscape common to these parts of Kansas.

Many years later, when residing in rural Ohio, I rediscovered these mystery fruits, which I identified as non-edible spider balls. “Put a few in your home,” I was told by a friend, “they’ll get rid of spiders!” I noticed a pleasant citrus-like fragrance coming from this deeply grooved, yellow-green attractive fruit and questioned its spider-deterring properties. Yet, I thought a few of these objects placed in a decorative bowl would make a nice, natural centerpiece. After serious research, I later learned that these pretty, green balls were not a spider repellent. I had fallen victim to an old wives’ tale surrounding the Osage orange tree.

Yes, Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is the proper identification for this interesting tree that’s in the same family as mulberries. If you check your Field Guide to North American Trees, hedge apple, Bois D’arc (often spelled and pronounced “bodark”), are secondary terms. The latter name, derived from the French language, stands for bow wood, and for good reason. The trees’ flexible, strong wood is preferred by Native Americans for crafting bows. (Comanches are particularly well-known for this.) Its bending strength exceeds that of other hardwood trees, such as the red oak. Bowhunters treasure archery bows made from the wood of the Osage orange tree.

The tree is named after the Osage Nation, who greatly contributed to the spread of this native plant. Its tribes hunted the vast grass prairies of the Midwest.

By the time the Westward expansion of the 1800s was in progress, early settlers, before barbwire’s invention, planted Osage orange trees to mark their properties and fence in livestock. These trees, with their short, stout thorns attached to their branches and trunks, were well-suited for fencerow plantings. Yet, because of their tough and durable wood, Osage orange trees were also used for fence posts, the crafting of wagon wheels, and the making of handles for various tools. When used as firewood, the tree burns hot and long with its high BTU output.

This hardwood, a native to Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana — because of its versatility — became a familiar sight during the Westward expansion on the newly settled, once treeless land in the vast Great Plains.

Many decades later, Osage orange trees were planted in most of the continental United States and parts of Canada. However, as it spread beyond its native range, it became invasive in some areas of poorly managed range and pasture land.

Following the devastating dust storms of the early 1930s, President D. Roosevelt established the Prairie States Shelter Belt program to help block strong winds to control soil erosion in areas from North Dakota to Texas. Osage orange trees were included in the plantings of field and homestead windbreaks.

Compared to other hardwoods with their tall, straight trunks, the Osage orange isn’t an attractive tree; it has short, often crooked trunks from which branches emerge in haphazard patterns — all sprouting short spines. Their irregular crowns hide them within a setting with other deciduous trees. Their pointed, narrow, shiny green leaves turn into a dull, bland yellow shade in autumn — unlike, for instance, the showy, colorful fall foliage of the sugar maples.

Osage orange trees can reach up to 8 feet within seven years. At the age of 10 years, they begin to bear fruit. The tree lives an average of 50 years and develops a trunk of 1-to-3-feet in diameter. Osage orange prefers moist soils found in river drainage areas but adapts well to the more arid location of the Great Plains.

These trees drop their attractive fruit in late fall — when most hardwoods have shed their leaves. I’ve always found it difficult to spot this large, green, ball-shaped fruit when clinging to branches still covered with green foliage. By the time the fruit falls to the ground — evidently in its ripe state — spider balls have changed color to a showier greenish-yellow hue.

It’s even more difficult to see the Osage orange tree’s small and unobtrusive white blossoms, blossoms that burst into bloom shortly after the emergence of the female tree’s young leaves — between April and June — depending on the climate zone these trees are located in.

What Uses are Known for Osage Orange Fruit?

Although you want to avoid picking up an Osage orange and biting into it, the fruit contains hundreds of seeds that can be eaten if properly cleaned and toasted. Supposedly, they have a nutty flavor. Judging by the size of these seeds, preparing them would be a monumental task. Yet, in a survival situation, it makes sense.

Various wild critters, small and large, forage for these seeds. In late fall and early winter, I often spot signs of this activity when hiking in an area where mature Osage orange trees are located. Mushy, flattened remnants of this fruit are scattered here and there underneath their host trees. Upon closer examination, this shredded mess is devoid of seeds.

Other uses, which I couldn’t verify, are a tea prepared from the roots of the tree for an eyewash, concentrated liquid from the Osage orange fruit used as an insect repellent, and essential oil derived from the fruit used as an antioxidant.

Potted and bare root seedlings are available from various nurseries. Check online and in catalogs