Man alive, look at those thorns! I'm quite excited. This is a start off of an Osage orange over on the other side of town, one that is growing in the cemetery up on the hill. I had a few of the fruit sitting on my porch two winters ago. The squirrels, skunks or raccoons finally tore it apart near the end of the first winter and helpfully seeded the front flower bed for me. I've moved the baby (carefully!) out of my front flower bed and into the far end of the Long Bed. Right now it's got a nice straight stem and a good strong leader. With care, it will grow into a tree and not a bramble. Left unchecked, they do have a tendency to messy, rambling bramble. Discovered by Lewis and Clark, this native American tree was presented to Thomas Jefferson in the form of seeds. It has hard orange-tinted wood that is impervious to termites, good yellow fall color, nice leaf shape and those wicked thorns. If I happen to have a female, we'll also have weird glow-in-the-dark-green inedible monkey-brain fruit, weighing a couple of pounds each.
I love how well this tree typifies the spirit of the American Midwest. Tough, useful, and practical. A beauty that people from more obviously beautiful parts of the country are completely blind to. Immune to rot. A heart of pure gold. Nearly impossible to uproot and move. And incredible defenses against rough handling.
That fruit is awesome, we stick them in spidery parts of the basement and it repels the spiders.
Posted by: Pam | 17 May 2009 at 11:32 AM
I also remember that the osage orange was a bonus leaf for the Freshman Biology class leaf collection project. I'm a tree nut, by the way.
Posted by: Roger (Big Doofus) | 19 May 2009 at 07:59 AM