The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center grace the park with visual colors and textures, sweet and pungent aromas, and help us to interpret the history of the human use of plants.

As folks drive around and hike through the autumn landscape here in the Ozarks they sometimes come across greenish-yellow fruits about the size of grapefruits, littered under thorny trees with clear, yellow leaves. The common names for the fruit are Osage orange, horse-apple or hedge-apple and the tree is called Bois D’Arc, Maclura pomifera.

The trees or large shrubs have short trunks and a rounded crown. The lower limbs are often shaded out by those growing above and will persist on the trees for years unless they are pruned. Sharp spines immerge from every leaf axil.

Bois D’Arc is native to the Red River Valley of East Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and just into the southwestern border of Arkansas. The limbs are strong and flexible and make fine bows. The wood is orange-yellow, all the way through and was used as a dye by native peoples and early settlers. It makes hot, long-burning firewood. The wood is slow to rot and makes good fence posts. Farmers and ranchers planted the trees in hedgerows to fence cattle before barbed wire was invented. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Great Plains Shelter Belt” plan resulted in the planting of 220 million trees over 18,600 miles to provide wind breaks and prevent soil erosion.

It is believed that the fruit deters spiders and roaches—many a bed in log cabins had hedge-apples tossed beneath. The pulp of the large fruits is bitter and so is not eaten much by wildlife. The seeds are eaten by squirrels, foxes, chipmunks and other small animals. Sometimes horses and cattle will browse the fruits.

The cavities within the fruit contain mash and, if there are male trees in the area, there will be seeds. The flesh protects the seeds from drying out and from germinating too quickly. Two methods are described for germinating the seeds. The first is easy. Simply gather the ripe fruit from around a Bois D’Arc tree in late fall. Break the fruit open and bury it in peat moss or compost and allow nature to digest the pulp over the winter. In early spring, gather the seeds and plant them in the ground where they will grow or germinate them in well-drained, sandy potting mix, keeping the medium moist but not soggy.

Alternatively, break open the fruits and scoop the mash into a plastic bag and place it in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator for four weeks. After this cool period has expired, pour the mash into a Foley Mill™ or jelly ricer cone to separate the pulp from the seeds. Immediately plant the seeds on the surface of the medium, in pots in a cold frame or other cool, protected place.

When setting out new Bois D’Arc trees, bear in mind that each tree will become 40-to 60-feet tall. Thickets will form if the trees are cut down. They need full sun and well-drained soil. They will adapt to many soil types and fertility levels but thrive in river bottoms. Here’s wishing you a beautiful autumn and a warm winter. If I don’t see you in the future—I’ll see you in the pasture!