# Turns out Osage Oranges were Mastodon Food **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614 "2009-12-09T18:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/1 "2009-12-09T18:58:33Z")
Every november I end up collecting a few Osage oranges (hedge apples) from local trees, and have always wondered what manner of beastie disperses them in nature. Apparently it’s horses nowadays, but in the post-glacial past, it was likely Mastodons that ate the fruit and distributed the seed. Nice PDF on Anachronistic Fruits of the US and the Creatures that dispersed them, [here](http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/618.pdf): > [@](#): > > It is perhaps no coincidence that the five species of temperate American trees judged anachronistic by Dan Janzen and Paul Martin > are all prodigious cloners. Vegetative means of reproduction would have helped these trees persist for the thirteen thousand years that sexual repro- duction has been disrupted for want of adequate seed dispersal. Kentucky coffee tree, honey locust, pawpaw, persimmon, and osage orange all send up root suckers-prolifically so when themain stem is pruned or otherwise damaged. Kentucky coffee and pawpaw are extraordinarily skilled in growing lateral root runners that sprout new stems many meters from the elder stem, supported by photosynthate supplied by the parent. Indeed a few years ago, when a paw paw tree “died” of old age in Arnold Arboretum, more than a hundred fresh stems popped up almost immediately from a vast network of root runners. [Via Botany Picture of the Day](http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2009/12/maclura_pomifera_2.php#002948) ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/2 "2009-12-09T19:08:59Z")
My horses eat them. I have several osage orange trees in my pasture, and often find half-eaten fruits. I wonder if the deer eat them? StG ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/3 "2009-12-09T19:22:48Z")
In Texas we call them bois d’arc trees. And they get huge here. The wood doesn’t rot, and the male trees (no horse apples, just two inch long spikes with venom) are used to make natural fences. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/4 "2009-12-09T19:24:33Z")
As I recal it, according to an old Stephen Jay Gould column, avocados were **Glyptodont** food. > **[Glyptodon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon)** > > Glyptodon (from Greek for "grooved or carved tooth": γλυπτός "sculptured" and ὀδοντ-, ὀδούς "tooth") is a genus of glyptodontine (an extinct group of large, herbivorous armadillos) in the family Chlamyphoridae (a family of South American armadillos) that lived from the Pliocene, around 3.2 million years ago, to the early Holocene, around 11,000 years ago, in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. It is one of, if not the, best known genus of glyptodont. Glyptodon Th... ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/5 "2009-12-09T19:32:27Z")
Fascinating! What a great read. Thanks, **Squink**! ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/6 "2009-12-09T19:50:52Z")
That was a fascinating article. I read the whole PDF. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/7 "2009-12-09T21:59:02Z")
My I recommend the book _The Ghosts of Evolution_ by Connie Barlow (the same who wrote the linked article), 242 pages of evolutionary anachronisms. A few spots get a touch repetitive but I found it a fascinating read. ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/8 "2009-12-09T22:02:17Z")
Whoa. I just visited [Mastodon State Park](http://www.slfp.com/Mastodon.htm) a couple of days ago and learned that same factoid about mastodons and the osage orange! What are the odds?? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/9 "2009-12-09T23:47:49Z")
I learned that the trees are always located behind me when I’m trying to take pictures of historic locations. Reaaaallly need to get a wide angle lense. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/10 "2009-12-10T03:23:13Z")
Wonderful! Fun to think of all those old mastodons wandering hither and yon doing the Johnny Appleseed thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/11 "2009-12-10T14:19:37Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > In Texas we call them bois d’arc trees. And they get huge here. The wood doesn’t rot, and the male trees (no horse apples, just two inch long spikes with venom) are used to make natural fences. Hehe.. _Horse Apples_ - I’ve only ever understood that to mean something else… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/12 "2009-12-10T14:57:38Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > My I recommend the book _The Ghosts of Evolution_ by Connie Barlow (the same who wrote the linked article) My library has it. Thanks, **Broomstick**. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/13 "2009-12-10T18:19:38Z")
Downloaded by my Kindle. One question: how do you pronounce “Osage”? Neither wikipedia nor wiktionary has a pronunciation guide. ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/14 "2009-12-10T18:30:28Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > Downloaded by my Kindle. > > One question: how do you pronounce “Osage”? Neither wikipedia nor wiktionary has a pronunciation guide. OH-sayj > [@CalMeacham](#): > > As I recal it, according to an old Stephen Jay Gould column, avocados were Glyptodont food. > > [Glyptodon - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodon) From the article: “Flatter than a Volkswagen Beetle, but about the same general size and weight” Now there’s a vivid image. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/15 "2009-12-10T18:37:51Z")
Osage Orange trees make for fantastic firewood if you’ve got some dead ones nearby. They burn hot and long. I’ve read that, in addition to yew, Native Americans would craft bows from osage. I wonder if that helped with dispersal at all. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/16 "2009-12-10T19:09:29Z")
> [@](#): > > “Flatter than a Volkswagen Beetle, but about the same general size and weight” Having frequently seen the excellent specimens at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History, I don’t think I’d call those “flatter than a Volkswagen”. They were overall smaller, but their rounded backs stood proportionally as high, I’d say. Maybe the writer had a different species in mind than the ones I saw. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/17 "2009-12-10T19:33:06Z")
Thank you, **LouiseE**. Ignorance fought! Now for my new question, related only by concerning another species of extinct North American megafauna: Were the giant ground sloths sloth-like in their energy level? I thought the reason tree sloths could get away with being so slow was because they were out of harm’s way. Maybe none of the dire wolves wanted to pick on something the size of an SUV, but a short-faced bear could take them on. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-out-osage-oranges-were-mastodon-food/520614/18 "2009-12-10T19:54:01Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Osage Orange trees make for fantastic firewood if you’ve got some dead ones nearby. They burn hot and long. They’re one of the best firewoods that there is, if you cut them while they’re still green. If they’re dried, you’ll dull your chainsaw in no time. They laugh at your axe.