My friend Dawn grew these gourds in her garden this summer–aren’t they beautiful? There was some mingling between the pumpkins and one type of gourd, which resulted in a rather interesting hybrid.
And, note the hedge apple–I found some on sale for 99 cents each at a grocery store in Minnesota this fall. I guess we’re pretty fortunate to find them in our neighbor’s yard for free! (In my defense, our male Osage Orange is the pollinator, so we should at least have joint custody of the offspring, right?)
Smith Family Weblog 
Posted by Doug Smith on November 13, 2008 at 8:07 am
AKA hedge apple and horse apple. Very dense wood, used for the most rot-resistant corner posts by farmers and pioneers. Used for bows. Also to keep away cockroaches and box-elder bugs. May be like Deet in repelling mosquitoes, according to Wikipedia. Pretty much inedible but may have been favored by the giant sloth and other extinct creatures. Maybe why they went extinct?