There is a really scraggly looking tree on the trail where I run, and it drops fruits that look entirely too huge for the tree they came from.
They are about the size of baseballs (or maybe softballs).
This tree is in central Jersey.
What are they? Edible? Yukky?
Looks like a horse chestnut, to me.
Nope, that’s an Osage orange, also called a hedgeapple. The fruit is fibrous and not edible.
That looks like it. The fruit didn’t look very appetizing anyway!
Thanks!
Someone else asked this question recently. They’re indigenous to Texas, and here in Texas, the fruit is universally called a “horse apple.” The tree itself if the Bois d’Arc, pronounced “bo-dark.” The name comes from the French trappers noting that the local indians made their bows from it.
Just out of curiosity, is it deemed not edible simply because it’s tough? The link didn’t say if it was harmful to ingest. Does it taste bad or make you ill?
“Bwa-dark” :3
According to Wikipedia, they are not poisonous but will make you vomit, and are also bitter. I think I’ll give them a pass.
I can attest to the fact that the wood is tougher and stringier than hammered hell.
It is/was grown as hedge rows to separate fields in the midwest.
Fence posts made from the trunks last nearly forever. Hard to saw, impossible to split.
Some folks slice up the fruit and dry it to use as cockroach repellents.
