Maclura pomifera (Milchorange)

Besucher aus fernen Zeiten: die Knubbelfrucht der Milchorange wurde von inzwischen ausgestorbenen Riesenfaultieren verbreitet (Bild Karlheinz Knoch)

Die nahrhaften Samen im Innern werden heute nur noch von Grauhörnchen gespeist, sind aber eine wertvolle Quelle für medizinisch wirksame Antioxidantien

Outside at the North face, not far from the Giant Redwood mature the bizzarre giant fruits of the Osage Thorn, also known as Milk Orange. This living fossil from the Wild West occurs in the wild only in a small region in the settling land of the Sioux. The knobby fruits are only of modest culinaric value, but have medicinal activity. The Sioux mythology tells that they were devoured by a giant creature termed "Thunder Beast". What soundes like an imaginative legend, became a new meaning by the find of fossil remnants of a Giant Sloth of more than 6 m height. Meanwhile, we need to accept that during the ending pleistocene, humans have encountered Giant Sloths. By the way, also the giant seed of the Avocado was swallowed (and later excreted) by similar Giant Sloths. Our gardeners collect the fruits in the grass and pile them up in a wheelbarrow. Who likes, can take some of these astonishingly heavy fruits