Comments on: Voices in the forest: echos of the ice age http://slothcentral.com/archives/49 A 12,000 year-old mystery in SW Iowa Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:51:50 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Holmes Semken http://slothcentral.com/archives/49/comment-page-1#comment-905 Holmes Semken Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:58:48 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=49#comment-905 Dave, An additional thought. The past and present distribution of the Osage orange on the Great Plains apparently is a classic example of the relationship between megafauna and plant distribution. According to Barlow, Osage orange was restricted to the Red River valley in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma when European settlers first encountered the plains in the early 1800’s. However, Barlow notes that it had been widespread in North Americae during interglacials previous to the present one. Historians note that a major obstacle to homesteading the Great Plains was the lack of fencing. Wood was scarce (expensive) and barbed wire, which did not appear until the early 1870’s, was not available. Osage orange proved to be well adapted for life on the plains and it formed, when pruned, a living fence that was ’horse high, bull strong and hog tight.’ Moreover, it could be planted to rapidly form impenetrable hedgerows, hence the term hedge apples. There subsequently became a business of selling their seeds to homesteaders. See (http://www.osageorange.com/Osage_Orange_H.html) for this history. Why did a plant that is so well-adapted for life on the plains not thrive there during the present interglacial? The answer appears to be because of the extinction of horses. Many horses (obviously not all, Barlow) love Osage orange fruits. In fact when I lived in Rockdale, Texas (post-oak savanna country, actually part of native range), we called them ‘horse’ apples. The hedgerow next to our first house in Iowa City contained ‘hedge’ apples. Horses were a common member of the Pleistocene megafauna and were widely distributed across North America. With their extinction, the apples apparently fell but were no longer consumed. Their disbursing agent was gone. My thesis supervisor, C. W. Hibbard (aka Hibbie), from Kansas sod-buster stock, told the story that when horses were introduced into a pasture fenced with hedge apples, Osage orange would take over the entire spread if not managed. He attributed the post-contact spread of hedge apples across the plains to horses, both wild and domestic that were first reintroduced by Europeans. He mentioned this as an afterthought in one of his many papers (will try to locate). This adds credence to the distributional relationship between some plants and extinct megafauna. Dave, An additional thought. The past and present distribution of the Osage orange on the Great Plains apparently is a classic example of the relationship between megafauna and plant distribution. According to Barlow, Osage orange was restricted to the Red River valley in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma when European settlers first encountered the plains in the early 1800’s. However, Barlow notes that it had been widespread in North Americae during interglacials previous to the present one. Historians note that a major obstacle to homesteading the Great Plains was the lack of fencing. Wood was scarce (expensive) and barbed wire, which did not appear until the early 1870’s, was not available. Osage orange proved to be well adapted for life on the plains and it formed, when pruned, a living fence that was ’horse high, bull strong and hog tight.’ Moreover, it could be planted to rapidly form impenetrable hedgerows, hence the term hedge apples. There subsequently became a business of selling their seeds to homesteaders. See (http://www.osageorange.com/Osage_Orange_H.html) for this history. Why did a plant that is so well-adapted for life on the plains not thrive there during the present interglacial? The answer appears to be because of the extinction of horses. Many horses (obviously not all, Barlow) love Osage orange fruits. In fact when I lived in Rockdale, Texas (post-oak savanna country, actually part of native range), we called them ‘horse’ apples. The hedgerow next to our first house in Iowa City contained ‘hedge’ apples. Horses were a common member of the Pleistocene megafauna and were widely distributed across North America. With their extinction, the apples apparently fell but were no longer consumed. Their disbursing agent was gone. My thesis supervisor, C. W. Hibbard (aka Hibbie), from Kansas sod-buster stock, told the story that when horses were introduced into a pasture fenced with hedge apples, Osage orange would take over the entire spread if not managed. He attributed the post-contact spread of hedge apples across the plains to horses, both wild and domestic that were first reintroduced by Europeans. He mentioned this as an afterthought in one of his many papers (will try to locate). This adds credence to the distributional relationship between some plants and extinct megafauna.

]]> By: Holmes Semken http://slothcentral.com/archives/49/comment-page-1#comment-869 Holmes Semken Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:23:45 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=49#comment-869 Dave, Your adventures with pruning your Osage orange tree and unexpectedly tricking the tree into enhancing its’ perimeter of defense against the now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna reminded me of abates. These are pre-Roman defensive field fortifications that have been reversed for use as corrals by nomadic herders. Abates, which consist of living or felled trees with sharpened branches pointing toward would be attackers, are classically illustrated in American history texts as they were employed by Cornwallis at Yorktown. In fact, abates are credited with being earliest form of military engineering. Abates, laced with barbed wire, were in use through World War II, and were quite formable. As an engineer (reluctantly) in the 1960’s, we were trained to block roads with felled trees, wire and booby traps so abates appear timeless. Your experience clearly illustrates that abates had their origin well over 10,000 years ago as a defense against ice-age herbivores. Abates are illustrated at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatis It seems that you can experiment further with your trees’ response to pruning. You can upgrade your tree to twentieth century standards by lacing it with razor wire. Then you can see if this either adds more sport to pruning or if it lulls the tree into a more benign defense against sloths and yourself. Dave, Your adventures with pruning your Osage orange tree and unexpectedly tricking the tree into enhancing its’ perimeter of defense against the now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna reminded me of abates. These are pre-Roman defensive field fortifications that have been reversed for use as corrals by nomadic herders. Abates, which consist of living or felled trees with sharpened branches pointing toward would be attackers, are classically illustrated in American history texts as they were employed by Cornwallis at Yorktown. In fact, abates are credited with being earliest form of military engineering. Abates, laced with barbed wire, were in use through World War II, and were quite formable. As an engineer (reluctantly) in the 1960’s, we were trained to block roads with felled trees, wire and booby traps so abates appear timeless. Your experience clearly illustrates that abates had their origin well over 10,000 years ago as a defense against ice-age herbivores. Abates are illustrated at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatis

It seems that you can experiment further with your trees’ response to pruning. You can upgrade your tree to twentieth century standards by lacing it with razor wire. Then you can see if this either adds more sport to pruning or if it lulls the tree into a more benign defense against sloths and yourself.

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