/out/ - Outdoors » Thread #135408

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129KiB, 600x450, osage_orange_tree_grande.jpg

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 19:28:03 No.135408 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>135467 >>135472 >>135899 >>135922 >>135923 >>135925 >>135940 >>136024 >>136154

Residents of Texas are familiar with this thing which looks cool but taste...ewww.

It's believed that the tree is an artifact of the Pleistocene when mammoths and prehistoric horses ate the fruit (modern horses and mules have been known to browse it)

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:00:02 No.135425 Report

Quoted By: >>135458

There's in fact a whole bunch of things in North America such as the Kentucky Coffee Tree, Honey Locust, hawthorne, and persimmon which are thought to have evolved around now-extinct wildlife.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO ia_sloth_reconstruction.gif, 94KiB, 347x447

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:21:27 No.135445 Report

Quoted By: >>135449

There's an interesting tree that is grown in the Florida and Central and South America called Guanacaste or Monkey Ear or Elephant Ear.

It's thought to be a remnant of the Pleistocene as well. The theory is that the pods used to be eaten by now-extinct giant ground sloths (pic related). Humans are the only means of seed dispersal as the pods are now ignored by all other fauna.

There are a couple of them growing in my neighborhood, maybe I'll take some photos and post them sometime this week. They're really beautiful trees.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:23:26 No.135449 Report

Quoted By:

>>135445
It has been said that the avocado's huge seed was meant for excrement and dispersal by giant sloths, since there is no currently-living animal in the Americas that would be able to swallow and pass the thing.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 220px-HoneyLocustThorn.jpg, 24KiB, 220x293

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:24:39 No.135451 Report

Quoted By: >>135455 >>135461

The large, widely-spaced thorns of honey locust were designed to stop mammoths from grazing; they won't deter the much smaller deer.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:28:29 No.135455 Report

Quoted By:

>>135451
As to why these trees retain such defenses long after they've outlived their purpose, it's because evolution is a slow thing. The megafauna of North America have been extinct 10,000-13,000 years, but since the typical non-pioneer species of tree lives around 250, that's a mere 52 generations.

In short, the trees haven't yet figured out that the megafauna are gone

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:31:41 No.135458 Report

Quoted By:

>>135425
KCT is believed to have been browsed by mammoths; they would eat the pods and nick the seeds with their teeth, thus scarifying them. Their close relative Honey Locust has sweet pulp that tempted large browsers to eat them, but the thorns ensured they wouldn't touch the tree itself.

It should be noted that there are some African relatives of persimmon which are eaten by chimpanzees and baboons, but they don't eat the seeds, only elephants.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:33:38 No.135461 Report

Quoted By: >>135477

>>135451
that looks scary as shit.
like friggin razor wire or some shit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:37:03 No.135467 Report

Quoted By: >>135472

>>135408
The natural range of Osage Orange is small and limited to Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, but in prehistoric times it may have occurred across much of the continent. When Europeans arrived in North America, OO may have been even more restricted and perhaps close to extinction due to the lack of animals to disperse its seeds. Indeed a single Indian tribe controlled all trade and access to the trees, as their wood was prized for bow making.

While squirrels will rip open the fruit to get at the seeds, this defeats the purpose of dispersing them. Horses however will eat them and since Europeans re-introduced the animal to the New World, have helped regrow OO's range.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:40:42 No.135472 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
>>135467
In fact this tree is actually a temperature relative of breadfruit

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 20:53:41 No.135477 Report

Quoted By: >>136051

>>135461
I used to pick thorns from the sides of some when I was a kid and put them on my bookshelves. I was ten or so; I thought they'd keep people's mitts off my books and legos.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 220px-Laburnum_anagyroides_flowe (...).jpg, 27KiB, 220x300

Anonymous Sun 09 Jun 2013 23:05:31 No.135555 Report

Quoted By:

Laburnum, a European native and like KCT extremely poisonous member of the Fabaecea family. Perhaps something that was also a food of prehistoric Proboscidea.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 09:46:30 No.135899 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
are you weird texan?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 11:14:50 No.135909 Report

Quoted By: >>136082

Osage orange also makes some of the best firewood in NA. I grew two dozens specimens from seed last year. They are planted all over my property now. Too bad it takes about a decade for them to bear fruit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 11:18:57 No.135910 Report

Quoted By:

Now that I think about it all these strange trees (locusts, persimmon, OO) make superb fire wood. Black locust is right up there with anthracite coal for BTUs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 12:12:14 No.135922 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
don't those things kill spiders or something?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 12:24:34 No.135923 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
inside is yeallow :)

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 12:25:38 No.135925 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
inside is yellow :)

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 13:02:30 No.135940 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
>looks cool but taste...ewww.
Dude, you've actually tasted a cow apple? Nuts.

Also to be noted is the fact that this tree makes hella good fence posts.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 13:18:31 No.135956 Report

Quoted By:

OO is FANTASTIC for bowmaking. Shit, it's hands down the best beginner wood. If you want to take up bowmaking, and have OO near you, you're a lucky man.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 16:18:26 No.136024 Report

Quoted By: >>136053

>>135408
We call them Hedge Apples here in TN.

I was looking for a Geocache near Nashville that was hidden in a large grove of these trees. I noticed that the ground was fairly covered with the large Grapefruit to Cantaloupe sized fruit but the ramifications of this didn't dawn on me until a stiff breeze blew through while I was under the trees. Suddenly I heard a continuous series of loud THUMPS and looked up to see the air full of 5 pound fruits plummeting to the ground. It would've made an awesome video to see me sprinting out of there while bobbing and weaving to keep from getting knocked silly by one of those monsters.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 17:20:57 No.136051 Report

Quoted By:

>>135477
>imply those thorns are half as scary as legos

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 17:21:43 No.136053 Report

Quoted By:

>>136024
I should put a geocatch at the top of a honey locust

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO osage.jpg, 300KiB, 888x691

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 18:20:31 No.136077 Report

Quoted By:

I made this a while ago. It's relevant.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 18:23:30 No.136082 Report

Quoted By:

>>135909
>using one of the best hardwoods in north america as firewood

Jesus christ at least sell it on ebay

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 19:51:13 No.136136 Report

Quoted By:

If you have horses, OO might be useful

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 19:54:56 No.136137 Report

Quoted By:

Central America has a thing called the Calabash Gourd which apparently was designed to be crushed open by some huge extinct critter. It lacked any seed dispersal agent until Europeans introduced horses, which gladly stomp them under their feet.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 10 Jun 2013 20:32:03 No.136154 Report

Quoted By:

>>135408
We had those on the college campus I went to. It was on The Hill and those were on a hillside. They would fall and roll down a hill. Even saw someone have one fall on their head. Pretty damn funy.

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