This tree gets its name from the greenish baseball-size fruit it produces, often called mock orange, horse apple or hedge apple. Native Americans made bows from the wood and European settlers used the root bark to make a yellow dye. Because of its thorny dense growth habit this tree was used as a living fence around pasture fields. The remains of such a planting can be seen on the south side of Dorchester Avenue in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Brookline. Osage Lane in Point Breeze was once lined with these large trees. A few small trees remain.