The spread of osage orange

The spread of Maclura pomifera, aka osage orange or bodark tree, from the relatively small Red River drainage system to 48 states was due not just it’s importance to native Americans. In the treeless prairies, settlers used this tree as a living fence – it could be pruned to sucker and with its sharp thorns formed a living fence that served as a windbreak and would keep out marauding animals, a living, and natural barbed wire described as being horse high, bull strong, and hog tight. With the use of actual barbed wire, the rot-proof wood was used as fence posts while still green, once dried it was too hard to put nails in it. That is if you had the foresight to split the logs for posts before they dried, as once again they are iron-like once they’ve aged.