Are Those Green Brains On The Ground Or What?

CHICAGO — What's the deal with the green brain-looking things on the ground these days?

They're not neon green softballs or leftover Halloween treats, but actual fruit from an Osage tree, which can be found in parts of Chicago.

The green fruits are oranges produced by female Osage trees, which can reach about 40 feet tall, according to the Morton Arboretum. The medium-sized tree has a "short trunk and rounded crown with large globular fruit," according to the arboretum. The fruits are described as "large" and "globular." They can be 4-6 inches in diameter, or about the size of a grapefruit.

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There aren't a ton in Chicago because the trees, which are native to Southern states, were mostly used in rural areas as windbreaks and fences, Morton Arboretum spokeswoman Kelley Regan said.

^{Osage tree oranges at Milwaukee and Waveland in Old Irving Park on Tuesday. [Anna Zolkowski Sobor]}

But they are in Chicago, including several Osage trees that can be found currently dropping fruit on the ground in Old Irving Park.

Anna Zolkowski Sobor, a longtime Old Irving Park resident and past president of the neighborhood association, said the trees are in numerous spots, including across from Schurz High School and along Addison Street between Keeler and Tripp. Those Chicago trees were originally planted more than 100 years ago by John Gray, a farmer in the area. The Osage trees' thorny growth served as fences before the invention of barbed wire. The Grayland Metra station in Old Irving Park is named after Gray, Sobor said.

The seeds of the fruit, which is closely related to mulberries, are edible, but it takes a great deal of work to make them suitable for human consumption. According to the Great Plains Nature Center: "The seeds are edible by people, but one must do like the squirrels and pick them out of the pulpy matrix and remove the slimy husk. This is the only part of the fruit that people can eat. Cattle are sometimes tempted to eat the fruit and may choke on them if they do not chew them up sufficiently."

^{These are Osage tree oranges, full and sliced. [Shutterstock]}

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