The Rural Voice, 1998-12, Page 42Rare tree
sought after at
Christmas
Fruit from Osage Orange Trees
are a decorator's delight at the
holiday season. In ancient
times Indians chose the wood
for arrows
by Andrew
Grindlay
38 THE RURAL VOICE
f you have a few osage orange trees on your farm you
are lucky. Look after them.
The tree gets its name from the Osage Indian tribe that
roamed around Texas and Missouri in the early days and
made bows and war clubs from the hard, flexible, tough,
yellowish wood.
White settlers found the tree to make excellent
hedgerows because of its rapid growth and the long hard
thorns on the branches. Stronger and harder than hickory,
the wood was used to make the hubs, spokes and rims of
wagon wheels. Because it was durable in contact with soil,
it was excellent for railway tics and fence posts. The bark
has an orange colour and was used to make khaki dye
during World War 1.
Nowadays, however, it is the fruit of the tree rather than
the wood that is valued. Interior decorators can be seen
driving up and down sideroads in the fall looking for the
lime -green fruit that has dropped to the ground. It is about
the size of a softball and has a pebbled skin, resembling an
orange in texture.
If a decorator finds a fruit -bearing osage orange tree, he
or she will keep its location a secret, just as a fisherman
will reveal to only a chosen few the spot where the biggest
fish are to be caught.
The osage orange is particularly sought after at this time
of year for use as Christmas decorations. It can be used
indoors on mantles or outside in planter boxes and will
keep its attractive green colour for months. It is not toxic
and does not tempt pets to eat it. The only negative is that it
has been known to cause dermatitis in some people.
But the fruit has another, more practical use. It will
drive out cockroaches. Monica Brandies, writing in
Organic Gardening, says, "... those big, green, crinkly
fruits are
the very best deterrent to water bugs and roaches ever
found." She quotes a bulletin from the Missouri Botanical
Garden that says,
"One green fruit, placed in a room infested with roaches
and waterbugs, will drive the creatures out in a few
hours."
There is no use looking in the farm woodlot' for osage
orange trees because they were planted by settlers
along the edges of fields as windbreaks and fences.
Besides, they need full sun to thrive, especially in their
early years. Look for them on roadsides.
If you don't have any osage orange trees and want to get
some started for future generations, after soaking the fruit
in water for a day or so, plant them in an area that gets full
sun. The trees also reproduce by root sprouts. Only the
pistillate trees, that is, the females, produce fruit so, if it is
the fruit you are after, you will need at least one male tree
and one female tree.0
Andrew Grindlay is very interested in trees. He lives in
London and owns a woodlot in Huron County.