Osage Oranges

in Monroe Street Cemetery, Cleveland, O.

You see one of these fruits for the first time, and you will find them interesting. What are they? Well, their home is part of the Red River of the South's valley, which makes the east southern border of the Okies with Tejas, and they extend south to San Antonio. In an age before barbed wire such plantings were used as strong, solid and dense hedges. The phrase employed to describe their placement, and cultivation (regular pruning) was "horse high, bull strong and hog tight". Now the fruit has several names: osage oranges, hedge apples, horse apples (well one type), monkey balls. They are light green and softball sized [type something like that in a search engine, and you will get an answer], they are bumpy, and sticky if the sap comes out.

The leaves look like the mulberry (its relative). The wood is both hard and dense, while being flexible. The French saw the Indians used the wood for bows, 'bois d'arc' [hence, bodark]. It is an extremely warm firewood. They grow male and female.

Maclura pomifera, a tall osage-orange

Franklin Roosevelt's WPA planted more than 200 million of these as windbreaks, and deterrents to erosion. This was called the Great Plains Shelterbelt. Under a Democratic President, and a Democratic Congress, and a sensible population (knowledge friendly) such a project could be done. It could not be done now for the lack of the last two conditions.
On top of this gravestone table some squirrel shredded the pommes to get to the seeds. To the right is a fruit, also to the right, and in front is a sapling with many glossy, lancet shaped leaves. The seeds are buried in the pith. The pith is most of the fruit, and then the seeds are surrounded by slime. Squirrels spend some time and effort for the treat.

“Yeah, what?”