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TT: Osage Orange (again)



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Happy New Year to all!
I'm enjoying all of the tree tales -- you folks are much more fun than some
of those stuffy professors on other not-to-be-named lists! :)
Here's another post from the Landscape Architecture side of town:
Mary

Date:    Wed, 31 Dec 1997 12:02:02 -0500
From:    Malcolm Cairns <mcairns@GW.BSU.EDU>
Subject: osage orange

Regarding the Osage Orange--
There is an interesting article: "The Osage Orange, a Botanical Artifact",
by John Winberry in Pioneer America, Vol 11:3, Aug. 1979. The article
recounts its historic lineage, "discovery" by Thomas Nuttall and
introduction to Europe, uses (bois d'arc, because the native americans
used wood for bows; seed seller, W,H. Mann on Bois d'Arc Creek in
Fannin County, Texas continued the name association); subsequent
popularity as a hedge in the American Midwest, a product of the writing
and ag. experiments of Jonathan Turner of Illinois College. These hedges
were planted and maintained by a modified coppicing process; plants
were not allowed to mature into trees, but cut and plaited regularly. After
the advent of barbed wire, the use of the Osage Orange declined as a
hedge, but the wood continued to be used as a fence post. The plant
was also used for making a yellow dye. The article concludes by
pointing out that those now "ancient" remnants seen across the midwest
(out of native range) are probably reminders/remnants of these early
hedgerows and boundary markers. Speaking of fencing, see also:
"Between Fences", Gregory K. Dreicer (ed), a catalogue for an exhibition
organized by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. This work
places the osage orange in its important place in the history of American
fencing.
Malcolm Cairns, Department of Landscape Architecture
Ball State University



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