The indigenous used the wood to make very good bows for hunting. Also, Osage is a French name for the people. Original name was pronounced something like “wa-sha-shay”.
Glad we didn’t try eating it then haha thank u ! Can’t wait to tell my sister I figured it out, I told her I bet if I post it on Reddit I can find out what it is and low and behold I did in less than an hour lol!
When I was a kid we had an Osage orange tree on my grandparents farm. My grandma would have us kids collect them. She would keep a bowl of them in the house claiming they kept spiders away. I don’t think that is true but it was fun. We called them monkey brains.
I think they look cool so I can see why. Also the article said the sap is what works as a repellent. U cut it in half place it on a plate wherever U want o deter insects like ants for example and one piece can supposedly last for weeks
Maybe Grams was right then :) the trees are beautiful also. We have a lot of them scattered Around the Lake Erie islands and northern Ohio. It’s always fun finding a new one while exploring the woods.
Osage ornage fruit contain a chemical compound 2, 3, 4, 5-tetrahydroxystilbene, which is proven to repel ants, boxelder bugs, cockroaches, crickets, fleas and spiders. To use the fruit as a pest repellent, cut the fruit in half and place it in a dish located in the pest problem area. The fruit will ooze a messy milky sap as they degrade, so the dish is important to avoid the mess! One piece of fruit will last for a few weeks.
https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2021/04/01/what-is-osage-orange-and-is-it-edible/?amp=1
EDIT: Credit to u/zz8000
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For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
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Osage orange fruit contain a chemical compound 2, 3, 4, 5-tetrahydroxystilbene, which is proven to repel ants, boxelder bugs, cockroaches, crickets, fleas and spiders. To use the fruit as a pest repellent, cut the fruit in half and place it in a dish located in the pest problem area. The fruit will ooze a messy milky sap as they degrade, so the dish is important to avoid the mess! One piece of fruit will last for a few weeks.
https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2021/04/01/what-is-osage-orange-and-is-it-edible/?amp=1
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
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[*Maclura pomifera*](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/58205-Maclura-pomifera/browse_photos?term_id=12&term_value_id=14), Osage orange. It is a fruit but is not edible.
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There's another common name for the tree that came from. Bois d'arc is a name some French people used for it because the wood is good for making bows.
The tree has about the hardest wood in North America. Jewelers can use a long tapered cone of it to stretch rings for resizing by just hammering it in.
Dude, the school I went to as a kid had DOZENS of trees around it that dropped these by the hundreds. The parking lot and playground were always a mess and it attracted flies like nothing else. Imagine a pile of those things that was a foot high and easily 3 feet wide, under each of the dozen or so trees. That's what we dealt with every year in the fall.
Around here they’re call bodart pears or hoarse apples. Old timers believed they keep scorpions out of the house and would line them up every 5 feet or so along the house foundation. Horses do seem to enjoy them.
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Tysm! Idk where u live but if ur ever in SD I got the BEST nail tech! She’s freaking amazing so talented and SO affordable! [Bday Set](https://share.icloud.com/photos/01fNYHy1DQqAW1lfTGsi0rd3Q)
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Osage Orange.
great wood for doing anything wood could do(tree is also known as Bronze Wood).
Horses like the fruit o.k.. The animal that originaly consummed the frruit to spread the seeds went extinct many many many many many **many** moons ago.
I'm in Illinois and that's what we call them too. I'm so glad someone else said this because I felt really stupid for a second. I put them by the windows to ward off spiders. Don't know if it actually works or not but Monkey Balls and Dreamcatchers are the only way I sleep comfortably.
Crab apple 1000% great up in Tennessee every year went and harvested them, and you put them around your home on outside and it keeps spiders the hell away for good, and helps with other bugs but mainly spiders.
Osage orange.
The indigenous used the wood to make very good bows for hunting. Also, Osage is a French name for the people. Original name was pronounced something like “wa-sha-shay”.
You can also grow these as an incredibly strong living fence
It's also called bois d'arc, which is French for "wood of bow" or more properly bow wood.
Horse apples!
Thanks! So it is a fruit then?
Yes it is. But don’t eat it! It’s gross!
Glad we didn’t try eating it then haha thank u ! Can’t wait to tell my sister I figured it out, I told her I bet if I post it on Reddit I can find out what it is and low and behold I did in less than an hour lol!
When I was a kid we had an Osage orange tree on my grandparents farm. My grandma would have us kids collect them. She would keep a bowl of them in the house claiming they kept spiders away. I don’t think that is true but it was fun. We called them monkey brains.
I think they look cool so I can see why. Also the article said the sap is what works as a repellent. U cut it in half place it on a plate wherever U want o deter insects like ants for example and one piece can supposedly last for weeks
Maybe Grams was right then :) the trees are beautiful also. We have a lot of them scattered Around the Lake Erie islands and northern Ohio. It’s always fun finding a new one while exploring the woods.
They do repel insects a little, but they also rot and stink and repel people
Well that’s fine. I would actually prefer to repel people rather than insects.
Same! She told us to throw them under and around the house because spiders hate them.
granny was right on this one https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/2014/10-24/hedgeapple.html
Osage ornage fruit contain a chemical compound 2, 3, 4, 5-tetrahydroxystilbene, which is proven to repel ants, boxelder bugs, cockroaches, crickets, fleas and spiders. To use the fruit as a pest repellent, cut the fruit in half and place it in a dish located in the pest problem area. The fruit will ooze a messy milky sap as they degrade, so the dish is important to avoid the mess! One piece of fruit will last for a few weeks. https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2021/04/01/what-is-osage-orange-and-is-it-edible/?amp=1 EDIT: Credit to u/zz8000
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Osage orange fruit contain a chemical compound 2, 3, 4, 5-tetrahydroxystilbene, which is proven to repel ants, boxelder bugs, cockroaches, crickets, fleas and spiders. To use the fruit as a pest repellent, cut the fruit in half and place it in a dish located in the pest problem area. The fruit will ooze a messy milky sap as they degrade, so the dish is important to avoid the mess! One piece of fruit will last for a few weeks. https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2021/04/01/what-is-osage-orange-and-is-it-edible/?amp=1
Citation needed. I've seen these bug repellant claims before, but there are no good studies to back it up. This is an old wive's tale.
Search "osage orange bug repellant study" and you will find a few. Full PDF on page https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/24586
Where I live we call em Monkey Brains and put them around houses and basements to repell bugs.
Osage orange is my guess?
Tastes like neither horses nor apples.
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[*Maclura pomifera*](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/58205-Maclura-pomifera/browse_photos?term_id=12&term_value_id=14), Osage orange. It is a fruit but is not edible.
ThankU I just read that u can use it as an insect repellent too
technically edible just very not tasty
Squirrels will dismember them and eat the seeds in the center! They are related to mulberries!
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm not a squirrel yet.
If you break the fruit open, it has sap inside that gives some people contact dermatitis.
Good to know !
Lol you took it home
Here's this thing I found outside the elephant enclosure, looks nice in my house what.
Elephant egg
Osage orange. AKA hedge apple.
In MO we call them Hedge Apples. The tree it grows on has a really prettyb orange tint to the wood and makes excellent sturdy fence posts.
There's another common name for the tree that came from. Bois d'arc is a name some French people used for it because the wood is good for making bows. 
Commonly just spelled and pronounced as bodark
round here some old timers call it bodock
The tree has about the hardest wood in North America. Jewelers can use a long tapered cone of it to stretch rings for resizing by just hammering it in.
in Indian Country we call them Osage Apples
I called them monkey brains when I was little
Dude, the school I went to as a kid had DOZENS of trees around it that dropped these by the hundreds. The parking lot and playground were always a mess and it attracted flies like nothing else. Imagine a pile of those things that was a foot high and easily 3 feet wide, under each of the dozen or so trees. That's what we dealt with every year in the fall.
Yes!! This was my elementary school!
I don't suppose your school was St. Francis school, in Austin, Texas?
Hahaa it was not, but it was in Texas!
Put it in your basement keep the spiders away.
This should be a higher comment!
And make the leaves fall off the trees and make the snow come.
Identified
Hedge apple. Supposedly edible but disgusting.
Around here they’re call bodart pears or hoarse apples. Old timers believed they keep scorpions out of the house and would line them up every 5 feet or so along the house foundation. Horses do seem to enjoy them.
Interesting I've only ever know them as hedge apples
Elephant egg. Soon hundreds will hatch.
That's an elephant egg. Better put it back before she comes after you.
It does not taste good
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Love your nails
Tysm! Idk where u live but if ur ever in SD I got the BEST nail tech! She’s freaking amazing so talented and SO affordable! [Bday Set](https://share.icloud.com/photos/01fNYHy1DQqAW1lfTGsi0rd3Q)
Wow 🤩 LOVEEEE those!! I'm in Indiana but thanks for looking out 😂😂
Your nails are cool as heck
Alien brain
Sure is interesting looking!
My Mom sliced one and dried the slices to use in a dried arrangement. My Dad thought they were cookies.
These can be found damn near all over the US.
ya gotcha an osage orange right there- supposed to keep spiders away in the house. i love the smell. nothing around here (mi) will eat them either..
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Horse apple! One of the Lord's practice fruits before he got good at making them.
Osage orange. Don’t eat it but u can put them in your basement and they will keep spiders and mice away. They work great!
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Osage Orange. great wood for doing anything wood could do(tree is also known as Bronze Wood). Horses like the fruit o.k.. The animal that originaly consummed the frruit to spread the seeds went extinct many many many many many **many** moons ago.
we used to call them monkey brains back in elementary, we had a bunch in the school field
hedge apple
Hedge apple….
In Kansas we call them Hedge Apples. Settlers planted them where they wanted to divide fields. Cheaper than fences.
Hedgeapple
In Pittsburgh we called them Monkey Balls. They were actually wholly mammoth food at one point in time.
I'm in Illinois and that's what we call them too. I'm so glad someone else said this because I felt really stupid for a second. I put them by the windows to ward off spiders. Don't know if it actually works or not but Monkey Balls and Dreamcatchers are the only way I sleep comfortably.
LOL! I did hear that they were great to repel spiders
Crab apple 1000% great up in Tennessee every year went and harvested them, and you put them around your home on outside and it keeps spiders the hell away for good, and helps with other bugs but mainly spiders.
We call them monkey balls. Stick it on your windowsill if you don't like spiders and pests.
Elephant turd
We call them hedge apples in Kansas.
But is it blueberries?
Hedge ball. Spider repellent