The Osage Orange

[rwsaunders]

Nat Geo has an interesting article about a frequent road hazard that I encounter every Fall...the Osage Orange (aka monkey balls in my youth).

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/e...02057533FD3D37

[SlowPokePete]

Thread title change is in order.

SPP

[Mabouya]

On one of my routes there's a tree right next to the road that drops them right in your path. Lots of squish debris from the cars.

Not being from the area, I've often wondered what they were. Now I know.

Edit: Something else just occurred to me. The tree I'm referring to is in the MO river flood plain, just a few miles away from where a few years ago they discovered Native American artifacts dating back to the days of the Cahokia Mounds people, so around the 11th and 12 centuries. I wonder if the direct ancestors of that tree provided wood for bow-making way back then...

[hampco]

Same as "bodark"?

[j44ke]

Same as "bodark"?

Yep.

[Mabouya]

From Google Street View:

No fruit on the road, but you can see the stains.

Centaur Rd image.jpg

[claritycycler]

Nat Geo has an interesting article....

Very interesting article.

[rwsaunders]

I took this pic for Pete a few months ago...my riding buds and I have running commentaries when we ride by the known “monkey ball drop zones”.

[bigbill]

Bois d'arc trees were everywhere when I was growing up. You haven't lived until you've taken one upside your head. The wood from the tree is very hard and mostly impervious to insects. I grew up in a house built by my great-great-grandfather in the 1880s. Built in the pier and beam style, the piers were bois d'arc wood.

[ides1056]

I collected these in Central Park and planted them where I live, which proved to be just outside their range. But the Oaks, Tulip Poplars, Hickory and Paw-Paw have thrived. Acorns I planted thirty-five years ago are now seventy foot tall trees in some instances.