What are the big green fruits appearing in Kansas?

TOPEKA (KSNT) – Noticed large green fruit on the ground in Kansas lately and wondered what you can do with them?

Foragers, foresters and others may be quick to recognize the arrival of fall by the appearance of various nuts and fruits on Kansas’ trees. One of the larger fruits to appear towards the end of the year is known as the hedge apple, hedge ball or Osage oranges. Big, green and with a bumpy appearance, these are a hallmark of the fall season in the Sunflower State.

These large fruits can often be seen dotting the ground near the Osage orange trees that produce them during the fall months. Pioneering Kansans can find a few uses for the hedge apples while they’re here and before the local wildlife take them away.

Thad Rhodes, rural district forester with the Kansas Forest Service, said hedge apples have found some odd uses over the years. While the apples themselves aren’t edible, Rhodes said some people have used them for things like decorations during the fall or as insect repellent.

“More or less cricket or spider repellent,” Rhodes said. “There’s no data that I’ve ever seen that supports that. You do see some people use them for fall decoration.”

Squirrels are big fans of hedge apples in the wild. Rhodes said squirrels are commonly seen eating the fruit, exposing the center where the sunflower-like seeds are located.

“The hedge apples themselves can be rather big and most of that is pulp,” Rhodes said. “The seeds are more or less the size of sunflower seeds.”

Hedge apples can also be used to predict the upcoming winter weather season, according to the Farmers’ Almanac. Folklore points to the apples being used in several ways for weather predictions, such as the appearance of bigger-than-usual hedge apples indicating colder temperatures ahead, while smaller ones might point to a milder winter season.

Rhodes said hedge apples contain very sticky sap when opened up. The Osage orange trees that produce the apples have historically been used for fencing projects or as firewood.

Landowners used to rely on the branches of the Osage orange trees prior to the invention of barbed wire to help fence in their properties in Kansas. Rhodes described the wood of these trees as “decay resistant,” making them useful for fence construction.

“Because the branches are thorny, you can weave them together for fences,” Rhodes said.

Osage orange trees were also used during the Dust Bowl era in the 1930s to slow down soil erosion. Rhodes said it is also known to grow quickly, which can make it a nuisance in some areas.

“I think it is an underappreciated tree,” Rhodes said.

You can learn more about hedge apples and Osage orange trees by heading to the Kansas State University Research and Extension Office’s website.

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