Hedge?

[apattie]

Ok, I see this listed as one of the best fire woods to burn, but what is it? I live in South Eastern NY and I have never heard of it. Does it go by another name? Thanks

 

[ckliff]

Ok, I see this listed as one of the best fire woods to burn, but what is it? I live in South Eastern NY and I have never heard of it. Does it go by another name? Thanks

Osage Orange. Heavy, dense, long-burning. Gives off sparks. Commonly found in windbreaks here in Kansas.

 

[Uncle John]

Hedge Apple also.

Has baseball to softball sized green fruit.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Had never heard of it before coming to this site.

From what I've read, it's a native of Eastern Texas highlands. It was planted widely as a "conservation tree" in windbreaks and the like.

Southern New York is about the limit of where it can widely grown in the north. -10ºF as a winter low seems to be the killing point, though it'll survive in protected pockets north of the climate of the (very) southern tier of NY or Massachusetts.

And firewooders in the parts of the country where it's more common have wet dreams about it.

 

[Mac88]

Most charts list Hedge as having the highest BTU rating of any American wood. I burn it. I believe the charts too. You "probably" won't find any in your neighborhood. FWIW, there are numerous threads on this forum related to hedge. Just do a search. You'll be inundated.

 

[Morgan in AR]

Bois d' arc

In Arkansas and Texas it's called bois d'arc, pronounced bow-dark. I'm finding that the word "hedge" is not only more recognized, it's also easier to type.

 

[Mac88]

In Arkansas and Texas it's called bois d'arc, pronounced bow-dark. I'm finding that the word "hedge" is not only more recognized, it's also easier to type.

That's 'cause "hedge" is English, not French (essentially "wood bow").

 

[trophyhunter]

Mac in your experience what months of the year will you typically see Hedge start growing those apples to the time they are shed and can be found on the ground?

 

[Morgan in AR]

That's 'cause "hedge" is English, not French (essentially "wood bow").

You Missouri and Kansas guys may be onto something. Eliminating French words long before "freedom fries"!

 

[Morgan in AR]

Mac in your experience what months of the year will you typically see Hedge start growing those apples to the time they are shed and can be found on the ground?

They grow all summer like regular apples, falling late fall. If there's not much snow or wet, you can find them almost all winter on the ground.

 

[PEKS]

Mac in your experience what months of the year will you typically see Hedge start growing those apples to the time they are shed and can be found on the ground?

He cannot wait that long..
It's cut, split, stacked and ready to burn before the fruit even sprouts..:msp_smile:

 

[iowa]

Back in the day land owners would keep their cattle in by making Hedge Rows. What they would do is dig trenches allong the land lines. Take 5 gallon buckets with hedge apples in them and some water. Use a heavy post or something to smash up the hedge apples and mix with water. Then take the mixture and dump down in the trenches. Fill back up and you would have a fence line.

 

[Mac88]

Mac in your experience what months of the year will you typically see Hedge start growing those apples to the time they are shed and can be found on the ground?

They grow all summer like regular apples, falling late fall. If there's not much snow or wet, you can find them almost all winter on the ground.

What Morgan said...

He cannot wait that long..
It's cut, split, stacked and ready to burn before the fruit even sprouts..:msp_smile:

And what PEKS said too...

I guess you can tell we like hedge. If it's bigger than my wrist it goes in the stove. It's super for an all-night fire.

 

[apattie]

Thanks guys, no wonder I've never seen or heard of it. Now at least I know what it is.

 

[sw18x]

Ok, all of which begs the question, did the term "hedge row" come from the tree species "Hedge", or the other way around?

...I mean, just in case I ever come across it on the bottom of a Snapple cap, a guy's gotta know.

 

[smokee]

They're all over sw Pa... we used to call them "monkey balls". They'll go through a windshield if you're not careful and I usually see them growing along the road sides.

 

[Mac88]

Ok, all of which begs the question, did the term "hedge row" come from the tree species "Hedge", or the other way around?

...I mean, just in case I ever come across it on the bottom of a Snapple cap, a guy's gotta know.

I don't know, for a fact, but I'd say the name came about because because they were planted in "hedgerows". The technical name is Maclura pomifera. The guys that originally planted them couldn't pronounce that or Bois d'Arc. ;o)

 

[haveawoody]

My tree service buddies tell me they have cut Osage Orange in Southern Ontario Canada but it's an oddity to be found.

If your looking for the best btu wood to burn in this area it's buckthorn, similar to coal in btu.
Buckthorn looks something like a black cherry tree with serious thorns all over and most of the time never gets much past looking like a small black cherry tree.
Lots of work for a small amount of wonderful wood, take bandages with you

Rock elm is another great wood in this area with btu almost identical to Osage Orange.
Lots and lots of elms dying here so you should be able to find one pretty fast.

I have burnt both Osage Orange and Rock elm, they burn a little different from each other but produce about the same btu output.
IMO Osage Orange burns much like Black locust and Rock elm much like Sugar maple.

 

[Whitespider]

Ok, all of which begs the question, did the term "hedge row" come from the tree species "Hedge", or the other way around?

There were “hedges” long before the “white” man discovered Osage-orange, or even before he discovered the Americas. Europe was crisscrossed with hedges going back centuries, much like our modern day fencerows. For many weeks after the WWII Normandy landing, Allied forces took the land “one-hedgerow-at-a-time.”

It was early French settlers that gave the tree the name Bois d’arc (meaning bow-wood) because they found it being used by native Indians for bow making (also tool handles). American explorers gave it the name Osage-orange because it was first encountered by them during interaction with the Osage Indian who supposedly traveled hundreds of miles from their lands to acquire it for bow making.

Because of its sharp thorns, before barbed-wire, it was planted in hedgerows by early American settlers to keep livestock/animals in (or out) of a specific area (such as around your vegetable garden to protect it). If the tree isn’t pruned it will send out dozens of shoots creating a dense “hedge” with “spikes”. Just a couple miles from me there is an old farmstead with one of these “hedges” around it… planted close together like that in this northern climate it doesn’t get much taller than 15 feet or so. It was also used extensively by FDR in Kansas and Nebraska during his 30’s “Shelterbelt” project.

The name “Hedge” is sort of a bastardization; because the large fruit grew on these “hedges” they got the nickname of “hedge apples”… eventually some areas of the country just called the whole tree “Hedge Apple”… and eventually that was just shortened to “Hedge”. Still, the appropriate American common name is “Osage-orange”.

 

[Mac88]

In Arkansas and Texas it's called bois d'arc, pronounced bow-dark. I'm finding that the word "hedge" is not only more recognized, it's also easier to type.

Ok, all of which begs the question, did the term "hedge row" come from the tree species "Hedge", or the other way around?

...I mean, just in case I ever come across it on the bottom of a Snapple cap, a guy's gotta know.

I knew somebody would drag out the encyclopedia. ;o)

In the name of "political correctness", I guess I'll have to stop burning "hedge" and start burning "osage-orange".

There were “hedges” long before the “white” man discovered Osage-orange, or even before he discovered the Americas. Europe was crisscrossed with hedges going back centuries, much like our modern day fencerows. For many weeks after the WWII Normandy landing, Allied forces took the land “one-hedgerow-at-a-time.”

It was early French settlers that gave the tree the name Bois d’arc (meaning bow-wood) because they found it being used by native Indians for bow making (also tool handles). American explorers gave it the name Osage-orange because it was first encountered by them during interaction with the Osage Indian who supposedly traveled hundreds of miles from their lands to acquire it for bow making.

Because of its sharp thorns, before barbed-wire, it was planted in hedgerows by early American settlers to keep livestock/animals in (or out) of a specific area (such as around your vegetable garden to protect it). If the tree isn’t pruned it will send out dozens of shoots creating a dense “hedge” with “spikes”. Just a couple miles from me there is an old farmstead with one of these “hedges” around it… planted close together like that in this northern climate it doesn’t get much taller than 15 feet or so. It was also used extensively by FDR in Kansas and Nebraska during his 30’s “Shelterbelt” project.

The name “Hedge” is sort of a bastardization; because the large fruit grew on these “hedges” they got the nickname of “hedge apples”… eventually some areas of the country just called the whole tree “Hedge Apple”… and eventually that was just shortened to “Hedge”. Still, the appropriate American common name is “Osage-orange”.