r/biology • u/Professional-Eye-332 • Oct 21 '23
question What is this?
Found in Tennessee (Nashville area)
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u/The_Mike_Golf Oct 22 '23
That’s a fruit from a bois d’arc tree. They’re all over here in northeast Oklahoma. We use them to make bows, stickball sticks, and war clubs. Pretty awesome, cuz that one is a biggun
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u/snarfsnarf432 Oct 22 '23
Holy shit is that how it’s spelled?
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u/The_Mike_Golf Oct 22 '23
Yeah only where I live people pronounce it bow dark 🙄
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u/snarfsnarf432 Oct 22 '23
I fully thought it would spelled boadark or something. And I grew up with 4 of these on the property. I’ve heard it to be like bowed-ark in pronunciation
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u/squareoak Oct 22 '23
Did the French settle in Oklahoma?! If so I don’t think this is common knowledge.
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u/The_Mike_Golf Oct 22 '23
I actually don’t know and hadn’t thought of that. I mean, it was Indian territory before it was a state. But… it was part of the Louisiana purchase though so maybe that’s how it got its name. It’s a tree that’s endemic throughout the Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and north Texas areas and that is a large swath of the Louisiana purchase land mass.
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u/CottonBlueCat Oct 21 '23
Osage orange or a monkey brain pod. Your choice. 😁 Also, bugs don’t like them. So you can put in crawl spaces, basements or garages & bugs will leave the area.
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u/biggysharky Oct 22 '23
Do they smell or something?
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u/saysthingsbackwards Oct 22 '23
Not particularly. It's bitter to us humans, very plenty. Horses love them tho
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u/luckymasie Oct 22 '23
That is an old wive’s tale with zero scientific evidence. They do not repel bugs. Please do not fill your crawl spaces with horse apples.
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u/TentativeGosling Oct 22 '23
Ah, we have a similar urban myth in the UK regarding horse chestnut (or conkers as we call them). Supposedly keeps spiders away but has been proved false many times. I suspect that it's purely coincidence that they ripen and fall from the trees just after peak giant house spider mating season, so people see loads of male spiders out and about on the pull, and as they disappear, the conkers suddenly fall from the trees. People out 2 and 2 together to get 5
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u/RenOkienkai Oct 22 '23
devil fruit
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u/OnlyWatchdog_ManStan Oct 22 '23
Thank you! Finally! I was gonna be so mad if no one made a One Piece reference
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u/Profetia-Ephary Oct 22 '23
Was literally scouring the thread for a OP reference! I was about to lose hope
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u/Computingusername Oct 22 '23
Many of us in Ohio call them monkey balls.
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u/quite_shleepy Oct 22 '23
Here in missouri we call them spider balls lol
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u/TopShelfMemesPlz Oct 22 '23
We've always called them hedge apples but spider balls does sound more fun
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u/quite_shleepy Oct 22 '23
We call them spider balls because they’re known for scaring away spiders. I’ve always had one tucked in corners outside of my house, haven’t seen a spider in quite some time.
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u/luckymasie Oct 22 '23
Here, we call them horse apples! Otherwise known as the Osage Orange, they are not as edible as they sound. Around 80% of it is technically digestible, but they are disgustingly bitter and the milky juice from the stems and the fruit itself can irritate your skin.
Also, contrary to what many people here are saying, there is no evidence that they repel bugs. It is an old wive’s tale. Please do not fill your crawl spaces with horse apples.
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u/Retired-Onc-Nurse Oct 22 '23
And the branches are sharp, pieces are sharp and will punch holes in tires! Ask me how I know!
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u/CommunicationSad6246 Oct 23 '23
And shoes….. we have 3 giant ones the thorns on some branches are close to finger size….
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u/Breanna225 Oct 22 '23
I’m from Texas and we call them horse apples.
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u/saysthingsbackwards Oct 22 '23 edited Oct 22 '23
Also called crabapples in Texas, and they come from the bois d'arc tree
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u/BruiserTom Oct 22 '23
West Virginia here. I only know them as crabapples. I never heard any other name for it.
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u/Chikndinr Oct 23 '23
Okay I was questioning my sanity I saw all the horse Apple comments and was like damn I thought they were called crab apples I’m trippin. Also from Texas
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u/thepurpleninja11 Oct 22 '23
Hi I’m from Australia and I’ve never heard of horse apples before but are they called that because horses like eating them?
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u/saysthingsbackwards Oct 22 '23
My horse fucking loved them like apples. We had a few acres and when the tree dropped one, my guy would hear it and go running! But they have many names, but the name of the tree is French, bois d'arc(bo-dark)
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u/BruiserTom Oct 22 '23
… name of the tree is French, bois d'arc(bo-dark)
The French pronunciation would be bwah dark.
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u/AsusAdutora Oct 21 '23
Just got hit with nostalgia. I’ve completely forgot about those since I last saw them as a little kid in Kansas.
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u/immersemeinnature Oct 21 '23
Hey! I'm from Kansas and the grumpy old neighbor who hated all us neighbor kids had an Osage tree. Hehe...
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u/Brickrat Oct 22 '23
I lived in Wichita when young and we had hegpdge apple fights all the time.
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Oct 22 '23
Fellow Wichitan here! I frequently get the urge to just huck one of these at someone's back lmao
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Oct 22 '23
Hedgeapple or Osage Orange. Spiders hate them like peppermint.
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u/luckymasie Oct 22 '23
That’s an old wive’s tale, actually. Osage has no effect on spiders. Peppermint, on the other hand, definitely repels spiders and insects.
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u/munnin1977 Oct 21 '23
Osage orange! They used to grow them to make fence posts out of the trunks around where I grew up.
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u/saysthingsbackwards Oct 22 '23
Hard wood? What did you call the trees? I heard it as bois d'arc trees
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u/GrumpSpider Oct 21 '23
Osage! Can you see, by the dawn’s early light, the lumpy green balls that make a mess of our roadsides?
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u/Prestigious_Gold_585 Oct 21 '23
It is an Osage Orange. They used to spread them around because the trees are so tough and made good fences. There is nothing that smells like an Osage Orange.
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u/Creepy_Living_5532 Oct 22 '23
I called them monkey balls growing up in Michigan!
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u/skynard0 Oct 21 '23
Also known as hedge balls from hedge trees as these were used by farmers to form hedge rows to keep cattle contained prior to barbed wire.
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u/Feral-pigeon Oct 22 '23
I just call these horse apples, never really learned what they were actually lol.
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u/Buckeyecash Oct 22 '23
Thirty-some years ago, almost forty, I was the garden center manager for the retail location of Mellinger's Home & Garden Showplace Inc., a large popular mail order nursery in N.E. Ohio called Mellinger's Garden, Nursery, Greenhouse & Supply catalog.
We always had a large basket of Osage Orange fruit this time of year in the showroom with a sign that read:
Osage Orange
Spider repellent
Prevents spiders in basement
A customer that read that told me that it works just as well keeping elephants out of basements. He said his in-laws use them in their basement and his father-in-law has never once complained about elephants in his basement.
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Oct 21 '23
They call those farmers apples in Illinois
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u/OdAndDrMorningstar Oct 22 '23
Heard of them called “Hedge Apples” before
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Oct 22 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OdAndDrMorningstar Oct 22 '23
From Iowa myself, must be a midwestern thing. Totally agree, no clue if it actually works or not
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u/luckymasie Oct 22 '23
It’s an old wive’s tale. Also, the milky juice from the fruit itself can cause skin irritation, so it’s probably not a good idea to leave them in your basement.
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u/luckymasie Oct 22 '23
I can confirm to you that it does not, in fact, work. It’s an old wive’s tale.
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u/lilmoonboi Oct 21 '23
Aw my great grandparents house had a ton of these, it used to be fun kicking them around running in their woods. Totally forgot these existed, look super alien lol
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u/Terlok51 Oct 22 '23
Osage Orange, hedgeapple. It’s mildly toxic to humans but I’ve read that the seeds are edible.
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u/Cool-Reputation2 Oct 22 '23
Monkey balls! They're seeded fruit from the Maclura pomifera tree. Osage oranges. They're eaten by deer, horses, and squirrels like the seeds. The tree itself is considered valuable due to its rarity, they start bearing fruit after 10 years and live to around 130.
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u/Outrageous-Air136 Oct 22 '23
Horse apples. They help keep bugs away. The tree was used on some Native American bows. Animals love them.
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u/Th3Godless Oct 22 '23
These have also been known to repel spiders and other in basements and garages .
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u/BahnYahd Oct 22 '23
Don’t eat it. It’ll curse you and you won’t be able to swim anymore. But you might get powers
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u/Vendetta_Marie Oct 22 '23
I accidently bumped a cow in the noggin with one of these when I was younger lol 😆
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u/see_blue Oct 22 '23
My suburban backyard is full of them this year. There used to be farmland behind my home. Hedge trees.
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u/Zestyclose-Goose7847 Oct 22 '23
What an interesting post!! All my American brethren teaching me a thing or two!! (I’m from Northern Ireland)
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Oct 22 '23
My friends and I had a fun time throwing those at each other at my 14th birthday party. CRAB APPLE!!!
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u/Hamerfell Oct 22 '23
So y'all Americans, can you kindly explain why've got those Osage Orange trees in our parks here in Croatia?
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Oct 22 '23
Maclura pomifera, or osage orange. Native to Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas. The ice age megafauna that ate them aren't around anymore but the seeds might feed some birds.
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u/montystevens Oct 22 '23
They're up here in Illinois, but rare so if you know what they are you'd call em monkey brains or osage oranges
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u/Dahurricane300_ Oct 22 '23
Is a devil fruit you’ll see you get powers just like in one piece. Lol 😆 just be warned you’ll loose the ability to swim and be weak to sea water.
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u/Acceptable_Panic_759 Oct 22 '23
We call them monkey balls and purposefully place them in the road to watch cars run them over lol
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u/vsandmnv Oct 22 '23
I know someone mentioned there was no scientific evidence of them repelling insects. However, I will say I’ve noticed that turkeys use areas around the base of the Osage orange trees as dirt baths. I’ve seen it multiple times in Kentucky.
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u/SadBook2045 Oct 22 '23
That there is a horse apple.
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u/18Pants Oct 22 '23
Hedge apple from an osage orange tree. The limbs have spikes. Tree is fantastic firewood.
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Oct 22 '23
In Missouri, my area, anyway, we refer to them as Hedge Apples. Not for eating, but I've been told that if you cut them open, it'll keep insects away. I thought they kinda attracted knats... lol
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u/CalebDuaneBallard Oct 22 '23
We used to call those monkey brains (in southern Ohio)
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u/Retired-Onc-Nurse Oct 22 '23
We call it bois d’arc and we pronounce it ‘bow dock’ where I live. (Osage orange is another name). Someone mentioned horse apples and my horses loved them! I’ve seen it dried and sliced and used for decorations with small pumpkins, squash etc.
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u/jgbuenos Oct 22 '23
this is the food of the giant ground sloths that once roamed this land. The seeds don't get nearly as dispersed as they used to.
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u/TheGeneGeena Oct 21 '23
Maclura pomifera - The Osage Orange (or apple or plum)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/osage-apple-orange.htm
They're common here in Arkansas too.