6/14/2023 0 Comments Hedge applesThe common name Osage derives from Osage Native Americans from whom young plants were first obtained, as told in the notes of Meriwether Lewis in 1804. The specific epithet pomifera means "fruit-bearing". The genus Maclura is named in honor of William Maclure (1763–1840), a Scottish-born American geologist. Some historians believe that the high value this wood had to Native Americans throughout North America for the making of bows, along with its small natural range, contributed to the great wealth of the Spiroan Mississippian culture that controlled all the land in which these trees grew. They liked the wood because it was strong, flexible and durable, and the bush/tree was common along river bottoms of the Comanchería. The Comanche also used this wood for their bows. esteem the wood of this tree for the purpose of making their bows, that they travel many hundreds of miles in quest of it." The trees are also known as "bodark", "bodarc", or "bodock" trees, most likely originating as a corruption of bois d'arc. Meriwether Lewis was told that the people of the Osage Nation, "So much. The trees were named bois d'arc ("bow-wood") by early French settlers who observed the wood being used for war clubs and bow-making by Native Americans. By providing a barrier that was "horse-high, bull-strong, and pig-tight", Osage orange hedges provided the "crucial stop-gap measure for westward expansion until the introduction of barbed wire a few decades later". The thorny Osage orange tree was widely naturalized throughout the United States until this usage was superseded by the invention of barbed wire in 1874. Under severe pruning, the hedge apple sprouted abundant adventitious shoots from its base as these shoots grew, they became interwoven and formed a dense, thorny barrier hedge. "hedge apple") as a hedge to exclude free-range livestock from vegetable gardens and corn fields. Īmerican settlers used the Osage orange (i.e. In 1810, Bradbury relates that he found two Maclura pomifera trees growing in the garden of Pierre Chouteau, one of the first settlers of Saint Louis, apparently the same person. (Note: This referred to Pierre Chouteau, a fur trader from Saint Louis.) Those cuttings did not survive. Peter Choteau, who resided the greater portion of his time for many years with the Osage Nation". According to Lewis's letter, the samples were donated by "Mr. Meriwether Lewis sent some slips and cuttings of the curiosity to President Jefferson in March 1804. Catherine's Landing on the Mississippi River to the Ouachita River. The earliest account of the tree in the English language was given by William Dunbar, a Scottish explorer, in his narrative of a journey made in 1804 from St. The name bois d'arc (from French meaning "bow-wood") has also been corrupted into bodark and bodock. Maclura pomifera has many names, including mock orange, hedge apple, hedge, horse apple, crab apple, monkey ball, monkey brains and yellow-wood. Evidence and arguments pro and con their hypothesis followed for decades afterwards. Martin proposed in 1982 that the fruit of this species might be an example of what has come to be called an evolutionary anachronism-that is, a fruit coevolved with a large animal seed dispersal partner that is now extinct. Due to its latex secretions and woody pulp, the fruit is typically not eaten by humans and rarely by foraging animals. It is a member of the mulberry family, Moraceae. Despite the name "Osage orange", it is not related to the orange. The fruits secrete a sticky white latex when cut or damaged. The distinctive fruit, a multiple fruit, is roughly spherical, bumpy, 8 to 15 centimetres (3–6 in) in diameter, and turns bright yellow-green in the fall. It typically grows about 8 to 15 metres (30–50 ft) tall. Maclura pomifera, commonly known as the Osage orange ( / ˈ oʊ s eɪ dʒ/ OH-sayj), is a small deciduous tree or large shrub, native to the south-central United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |