Osage Orange, (Maclura pomifera)

The fruit of the Osage Orange is big and heavy; sort of like a softball made out of lead. In Trees if Missouri Don Kurz writes “It is speculated that mastodons, one of the only animals large enough to eat the large, heavy fruits, did not have a chance to spread the seeds north again after the last glacial period because they went extinct.” To bad that humans killed off the mastodons!