Also called hedge apple, horse apple, monkey ball, bois d'arc, bodark, and bodock.
Part of
fig/mulberry family Moraceae.
In the autumn, produces large numbers of tough fruit. Once widespread in the Americas, it probably evolved this tough fruit with and to be spread by
🐘︎ mastodon genus Mammut,
🐘︎ mammoth genus Mammuthus
and
giant ground-sloth genus Megatherium.
[1][2] After the
Holocene extinction
removed these large herbivorous megafauna, the fruit usually rotted-in-place, leading to poor seed-dispersal and a steep decline in range to one river valley in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.[1][2]
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
American Indians valued (among other things) the tree's 💪︎ strong, flexible wood to make ♐︎ bows for ➳ arrows.
Later, Europeans named the locals Osage Indians, and named the tree after them.[1][2]
Due to the tree's long
thorns
and the way the tree spreads, farmers soon planted the tree widely along fencelines. The tree is now quite common across the 🇺🇸 USA and 🇨🇦 Ontario.[3]
Maclura hosts caterpillars of 8 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
References
[1]
"The Trees That Miss The Mammoths." American Forests. Winter 2010.
Accessed 2016-12-06.
[2]
"Anachronistic Fruits and the Ghosts Who Haunt Them" by Connie Barlow. Arnoldia. 2001. (.pdf)
Accessed 2016-12-06.
[3]
Personal communication, a while back by EP's great-aunt and -uncle to EP. They had several on their property line.