When my parents bought their 5 acres in Lebanon, OH, in 1978 and built their house in 1984, they had a lot of these trees and a lot of Hedge Apples (the green fruit) already on the property. I remember seeing them, picking them up and sometimes seeing them split in half, which showed the inside of the Hedge Apple. It was the first time I had seen this fruit. It was a good size! The outside felt bumpy and I can remember to this day how they looked and felt, even though they had to move to a condo in 2006 because of old age.

I remember that my Dad stated the wood of the Osage Orange was good firewood. The wood was long burning and he used a lot of it over the years.

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The original native range when discovered by western botanists was just in east Texas, southeast Oklahoma, and southwest Arkansas. It was once much more widespread when very ancient large mammals as the Mastodon and Mammoth were roaming around and eating the fruit and dispersing the seed long distances. I once read an article that was about several trees that miss the Mammoth, including Kentucky Coffeetree & Honeylocust. Squirrels do like to eat the seeds. The fruit can be brought inside the house for a citrus fragrance. It was planted around in the 19th and 20th centuries around the borders of farms to lessen wind erosion as part of a hedge row all over the Midwest, into the Mid-Atlantic, and New England. There still are remnant rows in these other regions. Like its relative the Mulberry, only the female plants bear the large horse-apples. It is a fast growing tree of about 2.5 feet/year and lives over 200 years. It has a shallow, fibrous root system and is easy to transplant. There are some thornless male cultivars. I don't know of this unique plant being used in any landscapes nowadays, as it is a messy tree. There are some specialty and mail order nurseries that sell some, recommending the wood as excellent for fireplaces, making bows, and rot resistant fence posts and still recommending hedgerows.

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