96 



Common Trees 



HONEY LOCUST 



Gleditsia ttiacanthos, Linnaeus 



THE Honey Locust, also called Sweet Locust, Thorn 

 Tree and Three-thorned Acacia, is the most beautiful 

 pod-bearing tree found in New York. 



The leaves are alternate, singly or doubly compound, 7 to 

 8 inches long. When singly compound they have 18 to 28 

 leaflets, and when dou- 

 bly compound have 8 

 to 14 pinnae each with 

 1 8 to 20 leaflets. 



The flowers are 

 greenish, appear about 

 May or June, and are of 

 two kinds. The pollen- 

 bearing are arranged in 

 short tassels; the pod- 

 bearing occur in few- 

 flowered clusters. 



The fruit is a thin, 

 flat, more or less twist- 

 ed, reddish-brown pod, 

 10 to 18 inches long, 

 containing many small 

 flat seeds and often per- 

 sist far into winter. 



The bark on young 

 stems is smooth, brown- 

 ish, dotted with many oblong breathing pores. On old 

 trunks it becomes grayish-brown to black and roughened 

 with shallow furrows and firm ridges. The branches and 

 trunk usually bear very distinctive, large, three - pronged 

 sharp-pointed thorns. The twigs are smooth, glossy, green- 

 ish-brown. The buds are very small, usually 3 at a node, 

 and placed above one another. 



The wood is hard, heavy, strong, reddish-brown with 

 pale sapwood. It is durable in contact with soil and used 

 for posts, rails, and general construction work. 



The Honey Locust has a rather extensive range from On- 

 tario to Kansas and south to Pennsylvania, Florida and 

 Texas. This tree is apparently native only to the Lake 

 region of New York and westward and southward, but now 

 well established in most sections of the State except the Adi- 

 rondacks and Catskills. Under favorable conditions it will 

 grow to a height of 80 feet and a diameter of 4 feet. It is a 

 handsome park tree. 



HONEY LOCUST 



Twig, natural size. Leaves, pod, and thorn. 



One-fourth natural size. 



