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Osage thorn: the fruit of America's protozoans?
Osage thorn: was this tree the source of fruit for the protozoan animals of America?
In 1803, the third president of the fledgling United States, Thomas Jefferson, commissioned Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition to explore the vast territories between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, where only Native American tribes lived
Meriwether Lewis was the most important explorer of these years and together with William Clark he led almost 50 men to the Pacific and back, losing only one man in more than two years, probably due to appendicitis.
Immediately after beginning his journey, Lewis sent seeds and shoots of a strange thorny tree to Washington. The Osage thorn, Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), named after the Osage tribe of Indians who call themselves Wa-Sha-She (people of the water), bears orange-sized green fruit. They are quite hard, fibrous and not very tasty.
However, the small trees that grew from the skillful seeds and shoots proved to be extremely useful as living thorn hedges to enclose cattle pastures. In the course of the 19th century, the Osage thorn spread as far as south-eastern Canada. The wood is light yellow-orange and very durable, the rootstocks always sprout again after trees have been felled, if the trunks are felled every 10-20 years to make fence posts, as soon became common practice. Only the strange fruits remained a great mystery: no wild animal ate them and thus spread the seeds, not even in the small natural distribution area along the Red River in the border area of today's Texas. Although they valued the wood highly for the production of excellent bows of the highest elasticity, the Indians did nothing to spread it either. So why does the osage thorn produce these strange fruits?
Perhaps these conspicuously large fruits are an adaptation from long-extinct animals. Until the end of the last ice age, there were numerous large mammals in North America, including three elephants, two horse species, several camel-like animals and ground-dwelling giant sloths weighing several tons. Their disappearance around 13,000 years ago coincided with the immigration of humans from Siberia. Only one of two bison species and a few deer survived the extinction of the large herbivores, which had previously survived several ice ages and intervening warm periods unscathed.
It is possible that these conspicuously large fruits are an adaptation of long-extinct animals. Until the end of the last ice age, there were numerous large mammals in North America, including three species of elephant alone, two types of horse, several camel-like animals and ground-dwelling giant sloths weighing several tons. Their disappearance around 13,000 years ago coincided with the immigration of humans from Siberia. Only one of two bison species and a few deer survived the extinction of the large herbivores, which had previously survived several ice ages and intervening warm periods.
It is likely that among these vegetarians, who weighed tons, were also lovers of the green globular fruits. It is also likely that these animals fell victim to overhunting by the early Indians. Even if neither has been proven, it sheds a whole new light on the relationship between these peoples and their natural environment. The "untouched wilderness" may therefore have been significantly influenced by human activity long before the arrival of the white man. One indication of this is the widespread distribution of Osage thorns in North America in the earlier interglacial periods. The rapid, artificial spread of this plant in the 19th century by white settlers only made up for what the extinct large mammals could no longer do as eaters and spreaders of the fruits and thus the seeds.
Meriwether Lewis died only a few years after the end of his great expedition in 1809. The Osage or Wa-Sha-She still live in Oklahoma today. Their relative prosperity today is based on the oil found on their reservation. The great era of the Osage thorn ended in 1873, the year in which the patent was granted for the invention of barbed wire, for which the tough wood is still popularly used as posts.
Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3432561
In 1803, the third president of the fledgling United States, Thomas Jefferson, commissioned Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition to explore the vast territories between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, where only Native American tribes lived
Meriwether Lewis was the most important explorer of these years and together with William Clark he led almost 50 men to the Pacific and back, losing only one man in more than two years, probably due to appendicitis.
Immediately after beginning his journey, Lewis sent seeds and shoots of a strange thorny tree to Washington. The Osage thorn, Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), named after the Osage tribe of Indians who call themselves Wa-Sha-She (people of the water), bears orange-sized green fruit. They are quite hard, fibrous and not very tasty.
However, the small trees that grew from the skillful seeds and shoots proved to be extremely useful as living thorn hedges to enclose cattle pastures. In the course of the 19th century, the Osage thorn spread as far as south-eastern Canada. The wood is light yellow-orange and very durable, the rootstocks always sprout again after trees have been felled, if the trunks are felled every 10-20 years to make fence posts, as soon became common practice. Only the strange fruits remained a great mystery: no wild animal ate them and thus spread the seeds, not even in the small natural distribution area along the Red River in the border area of today's Texas. Although they valued the wood highly for the production of excellent bows of the highest elasticity, the Indians did nothing to spread it either. So why does the osage thorn produce these strange fruits?
Perhaps these conspicuously large fruits are an adaptation from long-extinct animals. Until the end of the last ice age, there were numerous large mammals in North America, including three elephants, two horse species, several camel-like animals and ground-dwelling giant sloths weighing several tons. Their disappearance around 13,000 years ago coincided with the immigration of humans from Siberia. Only one of two bison species and a few deer survived the extinction of the large herbivores, which had previously survived several ice ages and intervening warm periods unscathed.
It is possible that these conspicuously large fruits are an adaptation of long-extinct animals. Until the end of the last ice age, there were numerous large mammals in North America, including three species of elephant alone, two types of horse, several camel-like animals and ground-dwelling giant sloths weighing several tons. Their disappearance around 13,000 years ago coincided with the immigration of humans from Siberia. Only one of two bison species and a few deer survived the extinction of the large herbivores, which had previously survived several ice ages and intervening warm periods.
It is likely that among these vegetarians, who weighed tons, were also lovers of the green globular fruits. It is also likely that these animals fell victim to overhunting by the early Indians. Even if neither has been proven, it sheds a whole new light on the relationship between these peoples and their natural environment. The "untouched wilderness" may therefore have been significantly influenced by human activity long before the arrival of the white man. One indication of this is the widespread distribution of Osage thorns in North America in the earlier interglacial periods. The rapid, artificial spread of this plant in the 19th century by white settlers only made up for what the extinct large mammals could no longer do as eaters and spreaders of the fruits and thus the seeds.
Meriwether Lewis died only a few years after the end of his great expedition in 1809. The Osage or Wa-Sha-She still live in Oklahoma today. Their relative prosperity today is based on the oil found on their reservation. The great era of the Osage thorn ended in 1873, the year in which the patent was granted for the invention of barbed wire, for which the tough wood is still popularly used as posts.
Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3432561