Weird and wonderful

There are some plants that are definitely just a little strange.  One of the most amazing to me is the osage orange tree.  I discovered this tree last year while riding in a field behind our horse pasture. 

What drew my attention were the huge, greenish yellow fruits.  From a distance it looked quite lovely but when I got too close, I discovered the stout, one inch thorns.  I had to find out what this fabulous tree is and how it came to be in my horses' backyard.

The osage orange is most likely native to Texas.  It was highly valued for its dense wood that resists insects and rotting.  It made terrific tool handles and fence posts.  The Indians used the wood to make superior bows.   Farmers would deliberately plant the trees close together to create fences and windbreaks.  Over time, the tree has become naturalized over the entire country.

The fruit contains a chemical called elermol which repels insects so well that some study results show it is more effective than DEET.  It is edible, but not flavorful.  The seeds are supposed to be similar in flavor to sunflower seeds but extracting them from the extremely sticky pulp just doesn't seem worth the effort.

To reproduce, the tree requires both a male and female tree.  The female will produce fruit without a male tree but the seeds will not be fertile.  

So how did four osage orange trees end up in a field in central Alabama? What looks like one tree, is really four trees planted in a near straight line.  All four trees are females (I carefully crawled around them to make sure all of them had fruit).  I hiked all around the area to determine if there were any more trees or seedlings nearby--there aren't.    The trees are mature in height and bearing fruit so they are more than 10 years old.  My best guess is that someone planted them deliberately and then they were forgotten until we rediscovered them last year.

Although the fruit are beautiful in a basket as a fall decoration, I don't think I will be planting them in my backyard.