Osage Orange

Although it may have been native to southern Missouri, it is very likely that Osage orange is not technically native within Missouri's borders. It is, however, native to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and perhaps other nearby states. At this point, it has been introduced nearly throughout the United States and parts of Canada. The species was spread before the arrival of European explorers. Seeds and living plants were transported widely in pre-Columbian times, principally because the wood was valuable for making bows.

This is the premier bow wood of North America, and bows made from the wood were valuable trade items for Indigenous people. Osage orange bows were transported many hundreds of miles from the tribes that grew the trees and carved the bows. This explains some of the common names: "bow-wood" and "bois d’arc" (in French, pronounced "bwah-dark," but transformed by English speakers into "bodark").

Native Americans also used the strong wood to make war clubs, tomahawks, and ceremonial staffs.

The useful, heavy wood resists decay and is uniquely yellow-orange. Today, Osage orange wood is prized for making treenware such as spatulas and stirrers, inlaid cutting boards, and other fine handmade woodwork products.

The sticky, milky sap can irritate the skin. 

An enduring belief is that Osage orange fruits ("hedge apples") repel spiders or insects within the home. Thus people sometimes place these fruits on the floor in corners, around baseboards, and in garages and basements starting in fall, when the fruits are available (and when insects and spiders start seeking shelter for the winter). Does it really work? There are plenty of personal, anecdotal testimonials, but there is also plenty of evidence to refute them, including observations of spiders building webs directly on the fruits themselves. Some studies have shown that refined extracts of the fruit have repellant properties against certain insects (though apparently not against spiders). But when it comes to the whole fruits, those substances are not so concentrated. Also, in lab tests where the fruits were enclosed in small spaces, they seemed to emit a chemical that insects dislike. But in the open, moving air of a home, that effect is likely negated. Conclusion: hedge apples are unlikely to be very effective for pest control.

A yellow dye can be made from the roots.

Native Americans used root tea as an eye wash.

Settlers planted rows of Osage orange as a living cattle fence. One cultivation technique involved crushing the mature fruits, putting them into barrels with water, then letting it turn into a mush. Then, a furrow was plowed where the fence was wanted, and the soupy seed mixture poured into the trench. Eventually, this became a nearly impenetrable line of Osage orange trees.

In the middle 1800s, the managers of Missouri's then-new Fulton State Hospital (then called an "insane asylum") employed Osage oranges as an inexpensive, relatively attractive barrier to keep its mentally ill patients from escaping. Records show that 16,000 Osage orange trees were planted around the institution's 40 acres of main buildings. The idea was that a natural, woodsy enclosure would be more attractive than a literal wall or fence, with a more positive influence on the patients than prison-like barricades.