01/10/2026
Our ancient Osage "orange" is starting the season off with a bang. Related to mulberry, this North American tree shows all the signs of Megafaunal Dispersal Syndrome, large, resin-filled, inedible fruit which nothing eats, guarded by stout thorns high above any (living) animal in habitats' reach. It's thought that the tree's seeds were spread by something like mastodon, or ground sloth, extinct just 12 000 years ago. If that wasn't interesting enough, you can interchangeably substitute these leaves as food for silkworms, which are famously loyal to mulberry. The arrangement and form of their thorns served as the model for barbed wire back in the day, and their dense, hard wood is known to burn at very high temperatures, exploding cast-iron stoves if improperly dried. Planted in their uncounted millions across the Great Plains in the early 20th Century, Osage barriers were known to be "horse-high, bull-strong, and hog-tight", leading to their other name, "hedge-apple". Its wood is known to be superior for bow making, with a bow made of its wood trading for a horse, and a blanket in the days before the tree saw its planting renaissance. Native American people were known to have traded bows of this species across many hundreds of kilometres, as it had a very limited distribution before its wide use as a hedge-row windbreak. Bois d'arc is French for "bow wood', another of its many names. Today, this species has been planted (perhaps reintroduced) to all of the continental United States and Southern Canada. The alien-looking urchin is actually the plant's flowers, and will develop into a grapefruit-sized, rock-hard compound fruit.
