I am really fascinated at the trees that align the road bordering the park across my apartment — they bear fruits that look like tennis eballs. From afar it seems like someone intentionally decorated the trees with yellow-green colored tennis balls. I never had the chance to look at them closely, until today.

So here they are:
osage_orange_baseball1

osage_orange_baseball2

osage_orange_baseball3

osage_orange_baseball4

Google says that the tree is called Osage orange. It is also called hedge apple, horse apple, bois d’arc, bodark, bow-wood, yellow-wood, mock orange and monkey ball. Most sites say that the fruits are not edible, except this site that says the seeds are edible.

One website claims that the fruit repels indoor insects. Maybe I should start collecting the many fruits that literally litter the sidewalks and put them inside my house to scare the red ants away!