Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) was on a huge winning streak in prehistoric North America, spanning from Florida to Ontario. It had evolved huge fruit to appeal to mastodons and giant ground sloths that expanded the tree’s range by providing transport and fertilization. But then, about 125,000 years ago, the glaciers of the last Ice Age crept southward, killing both the trees and their planting partners. By the time the thaw finally began about 12,000 years ago, the last of the trees were mostly clustered in parts of present-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Osage Orange
Nov 14, 2022
3 minutes
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