![]() I try not to let them eat very many, but they love them. They will eat the leaves and fruit when there is nice green grass at their feet. Commonly known as hedge apples, the fruits of the hedge-apple tree, also called Osage orange tree ( Maclura pomifera, USDA zones 4-9), supposedly have spider-repelling properties that border on magic. Notes from the class war: a golf course for the 1% next to Liberty State Park in New Jersey, kinda sorta visible from here, wants to expand into rare habitat. Our horses love hedge apples (osage orange) and the leaves from the trees. The orange color of the bark is another good tell. But on the other side of the fence here, there are several saplings along the stream. Mowing and the paths have contained the spread of this over the years. the tree gurus as the Osage Orange, the good old hedge tree has a storied past. This thicket is right across the path from a venerable double-trunked specimen that rains down softball sized fruits every year. When I was a kid I loved to gather hedge apples and throw them at all. By early October, you can find hedge apples all over the ground where Osage-Orange trees are present. In the fall, hedge apples develop and when ripe, fall from the tree. ![]() ![]() In the spring, the tree grows beautiful green flowers. This is a rather small tree that stays short in stature. And it’s armored! William Least Half Moon on the thorns: “just the right length and strength to turn away fleshy creatures without lacerating them.” Hedge apples are the fruit of the Osage-Orange tree. This is a very shrubby plant, and clearly takes to sprouting back with a vengeance when cut. I’ve never quite understood how this would work since the specimens I see are usually stately trees. For years I have read that Osage Orange ( Maclura pomifera) is also known as hedge apple and that it was often used as natural fencing, a living hedge as well as the source of very long lasting fence posts.
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