Gleditschia ^517 



GLEDITSCHIA TRIACANTHOS, Honey Locust 



Gleditschia triacanthos, Linnasus, Sp. PL 1056 (excl. /3) (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 650 

 (1838); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. iii. 75, tt. 125, 126 (1882), and Trees N. Amer. 556 (1905); 

 Schneider, Laubholzkunde, 12 (1907). 



Gleditschia spinosa, Marshall, Arb. Amer. 54 (1785). 



Gleditschia meliloba, Walter, Fl. Carol. 254 (1788). 



Gleditschia elegans, Salisbury, Prod. 323 (1796). 



Gleditschia brachycarpa^ Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. i. 221 (18 14). 



Gleditschia heterophylla, Rafinesque, Fl. Ludovic. 99 (1817). 



A tree, attaining in America 70 to 140 ft. in height and 10 to 20 ft. in girth. 

 Bark divided by deep fissures into narrow longitudinal scaly ridges. Young 

 branchlets green, slightly pubescent at the base below the insertions of the lower 

 leaves, elsewhere glabrous ; shining brown and glabrous in the second year. Leaves 

 simply pinnate or bipinnate, with four to seven pairs of pinnae ; leaflets of the pinnate 

 leaves, 14 to 28, lanceolate, averaging \ to \\ in. long, and f to f in. wide, minutely 

 apiculate at the rounded or acute apex ; margin crenulate and ciliate ; both surfaces 

 pubescent with scattered curved hairs, which are dense and conspicuous on the 

 yellowish green midrib beneath, and on the short stout stalklets ; rachis with a 

 narrow groove, and densely pubescent on all sides ; venation inconspicuous and not 

 prominent on the lower surface. 



Flowers with short pedicels ; staminate flowers numerous in usually clustered 

 pubescent racemes; pistillate flowers few in solitary racemes. Pod, 12 to 16 in. 

 long, I to 1 1" in. broad, indehiscent, thin and flattened ; straight or falcate, often 

 twisted ; shining dark brown without dot-like pits, pubescent ; inner coat thin and 

 papery. Seeds numerous, placed close to the upper suture of the pod, separated by 

 a succulent pulp, oval, about \ in. long, compressed, marked with a few transverse 

 lines, and becoming pitted on drying. 



The spines on the branchlets are conical, terete, unbranched or three-forked, the 

 branching being simply pinnate in one plane ; their colour is reddish at first, becoming 

 ultimately shining dark brown. 



The seedling^ has oval-oblong sessile cotyledons, and bears in the first year 

 pinnate leaves with about 20 very small leaflets. 



Varieties and Hybrid 



I. Var. inermis, Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. i, 221 (1814). 



Spines entirely absent or feebly developed.^ According to Loudon, abundance 



1 Said to differ from the type in bearing short pods. The pods, however, are variable in size on individual trees ; and 

 this cannot be maintained even as a distinct variety. 



2 Cf. Tubeuf, Samen, Fruchte u. Kei?nlmge, 127 (1 89 1). ..,./!., 



3 Sargent, Silva N. Amer. iii. 7S, note 3 (1882), states that trees growing under conditions where they have been freely 

 exposed to light most frequently develop spines ; while those growing in the forest, shaded by other trees, are often unarmed. 



