Talk:Osage-orange

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From the article:

Osaga orange is very often mixed with testicles. That's reason why there are called as osaga orange.

What does this mean, if anything?

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Do people eat them?

No they don't. The line was infantile nonsense. But, I've returned material on the co-evolution of Osage Oranges with large fruit-dispersing mammals. Very interesting new information. Why was this removed? Wetman 06:05, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

From what I read they are eaten by squirrels and horses will eat them, so the fact that there are no longer "large" mammals that eat this fruit in a setting in which most large mammals have become extinct seems not to be a very complete observation. For example, no mention is made of what is present in the wilds of Texas and Arkansas that could eat the fruit and aid in dispersal. I'm not sure that there is an absolute correlation between large fruits = large mammals for dispersal. However, my main concern was that the article seemed to have accumulated a number of little errors of fact and without a source, it was difficult to confirm which "facts" came from where. No problem leaving it in if you have a source (as cited). -- Marshman 17:16, 18 Nov 2003 (UTC)

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From the article:

As horses and other livestock will eat the fruit, and the horse evolved in North America,

It did? According to most sources, horses were introduced to North America by the Spanish. Can someone who is confident of their horse history please check this. Securiger 14:21, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

The early precursors to the modern horses (not very horselike) evolved in North America according to the fossil record. These forms have been long extinct, but the modern horses (Genus Equus, includes modern relatives like the zebra) came to be distributed widely on all the continents. In the late Pleistocene, these died out in North and South America along with a great many of the other large mammals on the two continents. This "event" opened the way for the modern horse to be later reintroduced to North/South America by the Spanish. - Marshman 17:40, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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Can American Bison eat them and distribute the seed successfully? If domestic cattle ("other livestock"??) can and do, I'd think Bison would, too - MPF 22:23, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Moved to hyphenated form Osage-orange, as this is the form used in the United States Forest Service checklist of native & naturalized trees - MPF 12:59, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

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How about a note on pronunciation? Is Osage pronounced "oh sage" or "oh sah gay"?

In Missouri, we say "oh sage". The same pronounciation is used for Osage County, the Osage River, the town of Osage Beach, and the Osage Nation that lived here.

It's "oh sage" in Illinois as well.

[edit] osage orange

Hi I live in Hamilton, Ontario. I have 5 of these trees on my front lawn. People come from all over in October to collect the fruit. It is ususally the same people back every year. They take the fruit away in bag fulls and use them for decorations. The teachers take them to school for the children to paint and make things out of them. Would you know if there are more trees around in my area and how would they have gotten here in the first place. Please email me at jettajeanner@yahoo.ca. Thanks for you information on the trees. Jean

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From the article: "Fall color is a bright yellow-green with a faint orange odor."

This seems confusing. How can a color have an odor (fall color has a faint odor)? Furthermore, how can an odor be described in terms of color (odor is faint orange)? Perhaps the second part means that the odor is orange-like? Regardless, the sentence still does not appear to make sense. Thanks for clarifying! MarkBuckles 07:32, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Revamp

It appears no one is currently taking care of this page. The references and links had been deleted by a vandal in March and were still missing. The written material was all over the place. Questions on this page have largely gone unanswered for a while. I readded the ref's and links to the main page and copyedited and organized all the info into some semblance of coherence. Hope this is helpful. Best wishes. --MarkBuckles 00:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cattle

Just to clarify: cattle do eat the fruit (I saw a cow eat one the other day). I'm not sure about pigs or sheep, but I would bet pigs do since they will eat anything. Dukemeiser 23:39, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I spent many a fall in upstate New York picking these mock oranges for my grandmother. One grandmother lived in the country the other in the city. My city grandmother swore that they kept cockroaches at bay, and I believe they did. I would pick them on the farm and take them to the city. Other than that they are useless. The pigs won't even eat them. They used the trees along the stone hedge rows to keep the cows in.

I'm not sure how this is done. I'm not even sure if this will go through. I reside in Berks County, Pennsylvania. I'm not even sure if this statement can extend outside of this general territory, because I have yet to notice or see them outside of this area, mostly because I don't travel outside of this area... So I suppose this is to say, I can't speak for anyone who lives in the counties surrounding Berks, however.... We have many, many, many of these trees all over the place. I don't necessarily think this is all that outstandingly important to mention in the article, except that I suppose I assume that because it was mentioned how they are so prevalent in the mid-south-western states that I would share about how incredibly abundant they are in my own backyard. Here, in PA. Perhaps my viewpoint of what abundant means is slightly different from what it actually means. I think there are alot here. So, do what you will with my rambling jargen. I just wanted to share... because that's what I was raised to do. Yes? 151.201.158.83 22:10, 2 December 2006 (UTC)