Osage Oranges in Victoria, Australia

At this time of year, autumn in the southern hemisphere, I love to walk around town. It's a small town, just outside the fringes of metropolitan Melbourne, and while much of the housing, especially the newer estates, crawl up the escarpments which ring a rich river valley, the heart of the town really is down near one of the two rivers. I say 'rivers' advisedly. 'Ponds' is more accurate in these days of drought.

My favourite walk takes in an old oast house which features on postcards. As does the famous and revered Avenue of Honour. From the freeway, this old entrance to the town is invitingly green, shady, and this month, adrift with leaves. The avenue has hundreds of approximately 80 year old elms, many of which are showing the stress of drought. Nevertheless, they look better than they feel. And the turning leaves flurry through the tunnel created by these gracious trees like confetti.

Back to my favourite walk: not through the Avenue of Honour, but round past the oast house and down by the five 'groves' or 'rows' of Osage Orange trees. At this time of year, they are also covered in yellowing leafage and the ground is littered around them with green balls variously called 'mock orange', 'hedge-apple', horse-apple, 'monkey brain', in the USA. Inedible, but currently being researched as mosquito-repellent oils. So I found out on my return from the invigorating walk, clutching four of the fallen fruit, inhaling their tangy orange fruit perfume. I looked up Wikipedia. Printed off the fascinating material there. Will put it in my Creative Memories Album for 2008, with the photos I took.

But here's a problem: under Distribution, in Wikipedia, there's no mention of occurrences outside the USA, except one sentence stating there are 4 or 5 trees in Croatia, planter unknown. I tried to create a username so I could add to the data, but obviously the millions before me have used all the common language, and I gave up in frustration. So I'm telling you now, if you're reading this, that there are numerous Osage Orange trees in my small town here in western Victoria, Australia, southern hemisphere, and they were planted in the 1860's by a Mr A.C. Simon, one of the earliest orchardists in our town, who brought the seeds from America. The timber is used locally for wood turning and the shavings are used for fabric dye.

We also have a stallholder in the Avenue of Honour whose barrows of pumpkins are a photographer's delight. If you'd like to know more, leave a comment.