apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We have thousands of these trees in Kentucky. They are referred to as "ugly oranges" around here.
If you put a few in your basement they do kill the cave crickets.

It's the season for them (hedge apples) in KC just now. The first time I saw them on the ground, I though my host's lawn was filled with tennis balls.

We have them in Indiana too. Another fun fact: Mastodons ate them!

they have these trees in fort greene park in bklyn, and those expensive little green balls are all over the ground.

i saw these last year in central park in new york city, and always wondered what they were. thanks! they are on central park west next to a staircase leading to the street around 101st street (i think) south of the pond.

I also first saw these last year in Prospect Park in Brooklyn when I was walking with my mother. She picked up a few and brought them home for decoration. I had never seen them before that walk in the park, but the next week at either CB2 or Crate and Barrel they had a bunch of fake ones for sale!

We called them hedge apples in ohio... and considered them a 'nuisance' because they would totally litter the ground with the fruit. $15.00? $1.75? We couldn't even give them away!

We do have them all over KC this time of year... put a basket of them in your basement for the winter and you'll be spider free the whole time!

We have them in IL as well.

We used to throw them at each other and at things when I was a wee lad.

Like many other things that grow plentifully, my next step will be to find out if they can be eaten and how.

Yeah, we called them hedge apples in Cincinnati. My brother got picked up by the cops once for rolling them across a busy road and watching cars smash them.

We heard somewhere that they kept spiders away, so my mom put them around the house. Didn't seem to make a bit of difference.

I never liked them... I always thought they looked like unripe brains.

We call them horse apples in Texas. There is a horse apple tree in the park across from my apartment in Paris (France), and no one around here can ever identify them.

I grew up in Michigan and one entire side of my parents' land was edged with these. The land they live on used to be a farm and, indeed, the osage oranges create a very prickly fence between their land and the property next door. This post totally took me back -- I love the smell of the fruits!

these remind me so much of my grandparents. they always had these in their basement in illinois.. :) thanks for bringing a smile to my face..this is one thing that always reminds me of them for some reason.. i never knew what they were or asked why they were down there.. but now i know why!

Monkey balls!

I jsut saw these growing in a window box in Baltimore. Thanks for letting me know what the heck they are :)

A sales person told me that I couldn't use them for decoration because they smell and let off a sticky residue. Is that true?

Out of curiosity, are these things edible (if you're not a mastodon)?

Cool decoration for Halloween. I wish I had a tree close by.

They do smell, and if you rub them aroma comes out more.

My mom used them in our Michigan basement but we still had spiders, so i am yet to be convinced that they deter bugs.

I never heard of anyone eating them personally.

I have seen them at a park here in east Tennessee. They are kind of interesting up close. They are far less glamous strewn randomly on the ground than in the picture above.

Ha, they were everywhere when I was growing up in Kansas, and we (creatively) called them "brainfruit". $1.75 ea. could have paid for my college tuition.

Well, this certainly gave me a jolt of childhood memories. I grew up in Kansas City and these were everywhere in the fall!

We called them hedge apples, but I also knew them by the name osage orange. Bad kids would throw them at the side of passing school buses because they made the most satisfying large green smear possible, made more glorious by the contrast against the orange metal. It was a major offense to throw them at a car windshield, because of their size and weight. Hedge apples are about the size of grapefruit but much more dense -- definitely not as small as tennis balls.

I also remember that they smelled really bad once squashed open, or when made squishy by natural decomposition. Hedge apples were considered a nuisance by the people who tried to keep their lawns neat and the sidewalks unfouled.

We call them hedge apples.. and yes they do help to keep bugs out of your house!

They really have no use other than to be ugly and inedible. The flesh is white and stringy and smells kinda nasty. The thing does leave sticky greenish residue. They remain green and hard until they rot, which means people either trip over them or slip over them. In any case, the school I went to had a tree of this along the path I took to my classes, and it is very frustrating having to dodge these little boogers and make sure I don't die from a giant venerial wart.

Wow!!! I have a neighbor around the corner w/ a huge tree of these. Never knew what they were...but I always saw ppl jumping out of their cars at the light or pulling over and grabbing them off the ground. Now I know why...LOL! I will be jumping out of mine too...LOL!

milk bombs. we hid in the bushes and whipped them at cars when we were little. they are great in a corner somewhere, they deter roaches!!! seriously. takashimaya is selling roach repellent balls!!