Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is a familiar hedge or hedgeapple tree of the prairie regions. Osage orange is a densely branched, short-trunked, thorny tree. Its hard, durable wood furnished bow wood for the Osage Indians. Rows of these thorny plants served as fences in the grassland plains before the introduction of barbed wire.
 
Osage Orange bears warty, softball-sized, chartreuse, brain-like fruits that often lie beneath the tree in abundance in autumn. Not all trees bear fruit, as male and female flowers occur on separate trees. The fruit is eaten by livestock, which has given rise to yet another common name, "Horse-apple."