Osage Orange

[h2o_dog]

I realize that an osage orange tree = horse apple, crab apple, hedge apple tree, etc. Someone made mention of an osage orange having bad thorns, but I thought thorns were on a MOCK ORANGE bush/tree which is something different entirely. Does a bois d'arc tree have thorns?

[jstanard]

I was wondering about the thorns too. I don't harvest the wood for my calls, so the last time I can remember being around a horse apple tree is way back in grade school. I can't remember if the tree had thorns or not. The only tree that I know of with big thorns is a honey locust or "bean tree".

[TN Duck Daddy]

"Guilty" on throwing some hedge apples.

Osage Orange makes a great long bow or recurve as well. I have read that it was one of the preferred woods for bows for native Americans. If it wasn't indigenous to their area they even had a pretty active trade route for it.

Must be some good stuff.

[professor]

It is pronounced "bwa-d-ark" with only slight hesitation between the d sound and ark. The earlier poster was correct, it means "wood of the ark." This is similar to the Locust trees found in many Mississippi swamps. The tree has a tall trunk with most of the branches extending from the trunk at a height of about 15 feet. The lower portion of the trunk has multiple "pods" of several long thorns.