The first time you see the fruit from a [bodark tree](http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4366) (**aka,** osage orange, horse apple, hedge apple, [Maclura pomifera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera)) you'll know it.  They are gnarly, bright-yellowish-lime-greenish, softball-sized  fruits that look kind of like an alien's brain.

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And they have a sticky, sappy residue that is sure to get on your hands when you pick one up.  According to the [Ohio Department of Natural Resources](http://forestry.ohiodnr.gov/osageorange), _most parts of the tree exude a sticky white sap containing latex when wounded or cut._

https://i.imgsafe.org/58f65d1c69.jpg

On a hike this week near [Lake Carnegie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Carnegie_(New_Jersey)) on the [Kingston Trails,](http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/maps/KingstonTrailsMapFinalDraft.pdf) we saw an area where the ground was littered with these osage orange fruits.

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 I looked up, but couldn't see even one fruit remaining on any of the bodark trees.  Which makes sense, seeing as how these fruits are pretty heavy and have gravity to help them find their way to the ground.

https://i.imgsafe.org/58f5d6aec5.jpg

I've seen these bodark fruits a few times before, but never this many.  There was a good hundred yards of a path that was strewn with them.  And you could tell that some of the animals were chowing down on them because, as you will see below, many of the fruits were ripped to shreds.

https://i.imgsafe.org/58f67020ba.jpg

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So I did some bodark investigation, courtesy of Google, and here's what I found:

* These fruits are a favorite snack of squirrels, and are also sometimes eaten by deer and horses.
* The prized portion are the several hundred small seeds that are tucked away within the deepest interior of the fruit.
* A few centuries ago, the [Osage Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osage_Nation) used the wood of the bodark tree to craft hunting bows. According to Wikipedia: _The Osage tribe was a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains who historically ruled much of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas._
* Back in the mid-1800s the osage orange tree, when planted close together and pruned correctly, provided an impenetrable barrier that served as a means of protecting crops in the mid-western plains states of the US from the many herds of bison and cattle that roamed freely.  This hedging usage of the bodark tree lasted until the invention of [barbed wire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_wire) by [Joseph Glidden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Glidden) in the 1870s.
* There are schools like the [Roots School of Bow Building in Central Vermont](https://rootsvt.com/) which hosts a course on building an osage orange long bow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnkPgddQzFQ

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And, finally, from a [Smithsonian Magazine](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/) article entitled [Osage Oranges Take a Bough](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/osage-oranges-take-a-bough-105043145/), here is an excerpt along with a  letter sent from American explorer [Meriwether Lewis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis) to the third President of the United States [Thomas Jefferson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson):

_In March 1804, while Lewis was in St. Louis attending the LouisianaTerritory transfer ceremonies, he sent Jefferson a shipment of botanical specimens, including live Osage apple cuttings (Maclura pomifera, now known as the Osage orange)._

_Dear Sir,_

_St. Louis March 26th 1804._

_I send you herewith inclosed, some slips of the Osages Plums, and Apples. I fear the season is too far advanced for their success. Had I earlyer learnt that these fruits were in the neighbourhood, they would have been forwarded at a more proper time....I obtained the cuttings, now sent you, from the garden of Mr. Peter Choteau, who resided the greater portion of his time for many years with the Osage nation...._

_The Osage Apple is a native of the interior of the continent of North America, and is perhaps a nondiscript production; the information I have obtained with respect to it is not so minute as I could wish, nor such as will enable me to discribe it in a satisfactory manner. Mr. Peter Coteau...obtained the young plants at the great Osage vilage from an Indian of that nation.... The general contour of this tree, is very much that of the black haw, common to most parts of the U. States....So much do the savages esteem the wood of this tree for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundred miles in quest of it. The particulars with respect to the fruit, is taken principally from the Indian discription; my informant never having seen but one specimen of it, which was not fully ripe, and much shrivled and mutilated before he saw it. The Indians give an extravigant account of the exquisite odour of this fruit when it has obtained maturity, which takes place the latter end of summer, or the begining of Autumn. They state, that at this season they can always tell by the scent of the fruit when they arrive in the neighbourhood of the tree, and usually take advantage of this season to obtain the wood....An opinion prevails among the Osages, that the fruit is poisonous, tho' they acknowledge that they have never tasted it. They say that many anamals feed on it, and among others, a large species of Hare which abounds in that country. This fruit is the size of the largest orange, of a globular form, and a fine orange colour...._

**_I have the honour to be with sincere esteem Your Obt. Servt._**

_Meriwether Lewis_

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All images, except the alien, @cognoscere and taken on December 27, 2016 on the [Kingston Trails](http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/maps/KingstonTrailsMapFinalDraft.pdf) of the [D&R Canal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_and_Raritan_Canal) near [Lake Carnegie, New Jersey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Carnegie_(New_Jersey))([Sony RX100 V](http://www.sony.com/electronics/cyber-shot-compact-cameras/dsc-rx100m5))

[Alien Image Source](https://pixabay.com/en/monster-alien-creepy-glow-green-160526/)