Description of Plant

Leaf: Pinnately and bipinnately compound 10-20cm in length. The leaves are shiny dark green above and dull yellow green below. The leaves are paired and stalkless with finely wavy edges that turn yellow in the fall.

Flower: The flowers are bell-shaped with 5 petals, they are greenish-yellow, covered with fine hairs and come in short narrow clusters at the leaf base in late spring. Male and female are usually on separate twigs or trees.

Fruit: The fruit is a flat pod, dark brown and thick walled. The pod sheds in the late autumn unopened; it contains many beanlike flattened dark brown seeds in an edible pulp.

Twig: The twigs are a shiny brown, stout and have long spines.

Bark: The bark is a gray-brown to black, bank is fissured into long narrow scaly ridges.

Form: The Honey Locust is a spinney tree with an open flattened crown of spreading branches.

Discussion of the Plant

The Honey Locust can have male and female flowers on separate trees or on the same tree, although most have flowers of both sexes. The sex of the tree can not identified without looking at the flowers. Flowering can begin as soon as 5-10 years. The pulp around the seeds in the pod are edible, being sweet and molasses like. The young pods are also edible when cooked. The young seeds taste like peas that have not been cooked. The pods are also a good source of ethanol. Although this tree is a legume, it does not fix nitrogen. They do however accumulate minerals and are used for land reclamation projects. The Honey Locust is tolerant of transplanting, heat, drought, air pollution, salt and high alkaline pH.

Copyright

© Sue Grabowski, Gail Slowinski, Carl Schurz High School 2003

References

Coombes, Allen, J, Smithsonian Handbook of Trees, Dorling Kindersley, London, 2002.

Little, Elbert, L., Field Guide to Trees, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1980.

Symonds, George, W.D., The Tree Identification Book, Quill Publishing, New York, N.Y. 1958.