By Bob Brennecke
Osage orange, also called hedge apple, bow-wood, French Bois d’Arc, naranjo chino, or horse apple, and monkey brain are a few of its names.
This fruit, when cut open, has many small seeds surrounded by a sticky, milky sap-like liquid that can produce dermatitis in humans.
The Osage orange is often trained as a hedge row along a boundary; it forms an effective spiny barrier. The tree also serves as a windbreak.
Its hard yellow-orange wood, formerly used for bows and war clubs by the Osage and other Native American tribes, is sometimes used for railway ties and fence posts.
