r/whatisit • u/deen0verdunya • 1d ago
New, what is it? What is this?
It was the size of my palm and pretty circular. I’m in SW Missouri. I feel like it’s a silly simple answer but I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before.
Thanks everyone!
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u/m4dch3mist 1d ago
Hedge apple or osage. Folks put them in the house to ward off spiders
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u/a_lonely_trash_bag 1d ago
I call them spider balls, lol.
(Yes, I am aware they don't actually keep spiders away.)
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u/ThatOneGuy0828 1d ago
How’s that work?
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u/Chef_BoyarTom 1d ago
It doesn't.
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u/ThatOneGuy0828 1d ago
Copy
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u/bobbyterryscrewsitup 1d ago
Roger
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u/CryptOp83 1d ago
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u/mrkruk 1d ago
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u/EnvironmentalGift257 1d ago
What’s the clearance Clarence?
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u/trint05 1d ago
You can toss them in the leaves this time of year and it keeps the box elders away
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u/MidwestNonbinary 1d ago
If it worked I think there would be hedge Apple products being sold at ridiculous prices
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u/Uzi_Osbourne 1d ago edited 1d ago
Osage orange
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthisplant/s/KUxn61tOe5
https://www.reddit.com/r/plants/s/6FOTWb5jba
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tree/s/LpiymlTail
https://www.reddit.com/r/PlantIdentification/s/ozQ6Ei9R7q
https://www.reddit.com/r/Whatisthis/s/yrAPphgBFo
https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/s/Xt3yk7CN7C
,......And dozens more
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u/PotentialPlum4945 1d ago
Yeah, seriously... I think people are just fucking with us at this point. u/deen0verdunya you can just eat all the dicks.
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u/maybe_maybe_knot 1d ago
I feel the same about all the videos of SpaceX. Like, if you have a cool video, just share it as a cool video. It feels like all my socials are filled with, "Hey did anyone else seen this weird thing?" Yeah, you and the 50 other people posting a video of it with the same question.
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u/Greedy-Pirate7749 1d ago
An entire bag of them, or bowl...whichever holds more dicks
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u/Rex_Nemorensis_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s a Horse Apple…or Hedge Apple if you prefer, and it’s from the Osage tree native to the south and central US.
Coincidentally the tree itself has a beautiful orange color and is one of the best woods for bow making.
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u/Individual-Aide7884 1d ago
And as hard as oak. I made a little box for my dad's ashes. Sparks flew from the table saw.
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u/Titleist917d3 1d ago
Id guess its a fair bit harder that oak. Its rough working with it thats for sure.
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u/Electrical_Catch9231 1d ago
Hard as an oak and then some. Oak is popular for furniture because it's sturdy but still workable. Hedge is barely workable when it's green, it's a bitch and a half when it's dry.
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u/fishboy1999 1d ago
Osage has no real practical use in today's world. Even in days past it only really had a couple of practical uses in bow making and agriculture for hedge rows (in a live state) applications were very hard and resilient but accessible materials were needed like fence posts or timber that would be exposed to the elements as it is naturally resistant to rot to a much higher degree than most woods. Tool handles, pins, work surfaces, cutting blocks, and the like were also somewhat common. But in most of the applications still it was worked in such a way that what we consider to be conventional wood working today is inefficient and in same cases ineffective. Particularly in the case of bow making, which is what it is best known for, the wood was warked in relation to its grain and along its growth rings as this method proved most effective (even if still laborsome) and yielded the most strength and durability.
(I may have a slight bias towards Osage as I have made a number of bows from it, though it is not my favorite it is undeniably one of the strongest and most robust woods out there, particular for bow making)
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 1d ago
I posted my comment before I saw this. They're actually named horse apples? Nice.
We had them all over the place where I grew up in the South.
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u/avoidant_otter 1d ago
Plant it and make it grow straight. You’ll have us bowyers beating down your door to get it
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u/Jdeghart58 1d ago
Some of the hardest wood you will come across. An ax will bounce off that shit.
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u/That-Pin-7033 1d ago
Am I the only one that calls them Monkey Balls...???
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u/Charod48 1d ago
Might be a regional thing? We call them that in Akron.
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u/That-Pin-7033 1d ago
I'm right outside Cleveland so maybe its an Ohio thing? Makes me genuinely curious how we even started calling them money balls in the first place
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u/tcadams18 1d ago
Back when I was a kid we’d go in the woods and around the neighborhood and gather up as many as we could find and then play monkey ball baseball. Everybody got pitched 10 monkeyballs and you got a point for each smashed one
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u/kcsebby 1d ago
Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) aka the horse apple. Not really a choice edible for humans.
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u/DerivativeOfPie 1d ago
Wooly mammoths and other giant animals evolved alongside Osage oranges. They ate them and spread seeds across North and South America. After the extinction of the megafauna the Osage orange's range shrank until Europeans began planting them as hedges.
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u/lilyputin 1d ago
They basically are not edible for humans. Eat one I dare you. It will taste horrid and if you get it down your stomach is going to make you wish you didn't.
Technically the seeds are edible but more power to you if want to spend forever extracting them.
Only real use for them is wood for woodworkers.
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u/scarletredvolare 1d ago
Hedge apples is the correct name. Horse apples are horse shit - horse poop.
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u/neverenoughmags 1d ago
Those are road apples....
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u/PumpkinMug420 1d ago
I think people use the expletive "horse apples" to stand in for the expletive "horse shit", like when calling bullshit on someone, but people then just start referring to horse poop itself as horse apples since they use it synonymously with "horse shit"
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u/PrimeBrisky 1d ago
I grew up calling them horse apples. Use to use them for bowling into the storm drain.
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u/ChickFlickadee14 1d ago
Dude… Can’t believe I wasn’t the only one that bowled with them 😂.
We always called them hedge apples or “crab” apples.2
u/Lost_Analyst26 14h ago
We called them monkey balls in our neighborhood. All of the kids would build forts and stock up on monkey balls for the weekend battles. Southeast Delco PA.
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u/Gold_Signature1912 1d ago
The name Bois d'Arc comes from a French phrase meaning "bow-wood," which refers to the Osage orange tree (Maclura pomifera). You’ll hear a lot of the backwoods folks in the Ozarks call it Bodark…..
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u/PineappleBrother 1d ago
No one else saying monkey brain?
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u/Can-of-worms-606 1d ago
I’ve always known them as monkey brains! When I was a kid we used to stick them on the ends of sticks and have “forest wars” with them
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u/ArdentHedonist 1d ago edited 1d ago
The tree of origin is the finest bow wood available. It also is one of the best firewoods. The bark makes a great dye. Hedge apple comes from the fact that the tree was used as a hedge. It coppices well and has huge, nasty spines. Hence the term “bull strong and pig tight.”
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u/Prudence2020 1d ago
Osage orange, DO NOT get the sap on your clothes! It's difficult to get out! The wood can be used for making bows though, it's actually considered the best bow wood in North America!
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u/Many_Consequence590 1d ago
Osage orange. Friends and I used to throw them at each other after school.
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u/Ridethewind1961 1d ago
Bodark
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u/TexGrrl 1d ago
Bois d'arc...because the wood is good for making bows...colloquially pronounced "bodark"
The fruit, in my experience, was solely used by elementary-school-age boys for throwing at girls.
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u/Russ_images 1d ago
I call it the things my friends used to fucking throw at me when I was a kid.. stop it.
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u/SewingMechanic 1d ago
These are really great in homemade slingshots…. Aimed at targets in a field. Good times at pumpkin farms in Kansas.
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u/Substantial-Wait-473 1d ago
Hood denter aka Osage Orange-drove under one that was dropping off the tree and it left a dent.
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u/Pitiful_Speech2645 1d ago
Osage Orange. It’s a giant seed pod. You can eat the inside in a pinch, but it’s pretty bland
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u/Bettysgir 1d ago
We grew up calling them “horse apples”. No idea why. Deep South.
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u/Iamthewalrusforreal 1d ago
My horses love to eat these before they die.
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u/Dansk72 1d ago
Because eating them kills them, or it's part of their death ritual?
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u/Proper_Party_9712 1d ago
Monkey brains. That's what I always knew the bags. Hedge apples was the other one. Supposedly good to pick him up and throw them up next to your house because it keeps insects and spiders from wanting to be near the outside of your house.
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u/renofishing 1d ago
Osage orange. We used to throw them at each other when we were kids. Hurts like hell when you get with one
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u/Not-a-bot-10 1d ago
These are all over certain places of Delaware
We used to throw them at walls and watch them explode for the fun
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u/PaulMakesThings1 1d ago
They were planted all over the US because Osage trees are tall and strong and make a good windbreak. The wood is actually good for making bows.
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u/sgtpepperslaststand 1d ago
We called them crab apples and we used to gather up tons of these and throw them at eachother
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u/Limp-Blueberry-2507 1d ago
During the Pleistocene epoch (around 15,000 years ago), giant ground sloths, mammoths, and mastodons ate these large fruits and passed the seeds intact in their dung, helping the tree spread. When the megafauna (giant animals) went extinct roughly 13,000 years ago, the natural range of the Osage orange shrank dramatically to the south-central United States (primarily the Red River basin in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas).
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u/Deltan875 1d ago
That is a Green Tree Boa, balled up ready to hang from a branch.
Or at least thats what I always thought it was as a kid 😉
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u/shanesenbradz 1d ago
In jamaica we call it breadfruit
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u/gravity_bomb 1d ago
Do not eat this! This is an Osage orange and is toxic to eat.
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u/Practical-Ad-9547 1d ago
As a carver, this wood is iron-like. I didn’t see another common name, Bois d’arc, or Bodark. This reflects its use as an archery bow wood. Before barbed wire, these thorny trees were planted as hedges to contain livestock. You often find a line of them where old homesteads were located.
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u/0rder_66_survivor 1d ago
Osage Orange, Hedge Apple. The wood from the Osage tree was traded by Native Americans to ohmther tribes as it was, and still is, excellent wood for bow making.
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u/Round_Macaron9672 1d ago
Was gonna say sugar apples . Taste like mango and banana to me. Don't trust me plz Edit: added don't trust me
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u/Educational-Plant981 1d ago
Osage Orange. I'd bet a nickle you were walking through a straight line of trees that used to be a hedge fence.
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u/chocolatedadbodthor 1d ago
Ahhh the ol yummi yummi no mi. Eat it and you'll be a "Yummy man" and people will try to eat you. Also no swimming.
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u/DareNothing 1d ago
We always call them monkey balls and the wood from the trees make excellent bows
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u/charbear60 1d ago
Hedge Apple. Quite a few people buy them and use them as insect/spider repellent in basements
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u/originaljbw 1d ago
The neat part is:
We hunted to extinction whatever ate those fruits thousands of yeara ago. I've heard it said mastadons ate them.
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u/Imaginary-Goose2820 1d ago
Can't vouch for efficacy, but my fil puts them around his house to ward off mice.
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u/Traditional-Pin5188 1d ago
Used these while taking care of my father in KC, he called them mock oranges!! Keeps spider away. When he passed i brought a bag full hone to Wyoming! They worked for a couple of years!!
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u/MidwestNonbinary 1d ago
Always called them hedge apples. They are a fruit, and it’s a mess when the trees are right next to the road. Town I used to live in has multiple trees in the neighborhood I lived in and the roads were green for a good portion of the year
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u/Whybaby16154 1d ago
Hedge apple. Osage Orange, Monkey Ball . Fruit. Not edible. Baseball sized. Nice smell when put around the house. Lasts a couple months before it rots. Keeps spiders away
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