The Osage orange is fairly common in our area and was named for the Osage Indian Nation. It’s a tree with many names, among them hedge apple, bois d’arc and horse apple.
It is a small deciduous tree or large shrub native to the south-central United States. The tree is a member of the mulberry family. Before the development of barbed wire, the dense shrub, with its sharp thorns, was planted as an impenetrable hedge for holding livestock, hence the name hedge apple, although the fruit is more orange-like than apple.
The wrinkled fruit, the size of a large orange or small grapefruit, is green until ripe, then yellow or orange. Horses and other livestock sometimes eat the fruit, although it is not very palatable because it produces a sticky white latex when cut.
The wood is heavy, extremely hard, durable and decay resistant. It was used for barbed wire fence posts before the introduction of T-posts. It is still seen in many rural barbed wire fences. The Osage and Comanche used the wood for bows and war clubs. The name bois d’arc is French for “bow-wood,” a reference to its use for bows.
A friend in Bixby is using the wood to make a bow. The roots are covered in a bright orange bark. The Comanche used a decoction (a boiled concentrated solution) made from the roots to treat sore eyes. A yellow dye is extracted from the wood.
