Honeylocust
Gleditsia triacanthos
Fabaceae (Legume Family)
▲▼ young plants, showing bipinnately compound leaves and long thorns
▲ mature plant with long thorns on branches
▲ mature tree in pasture
▲ young tree by lake
Honeylocust:
· native medium to large tree with pinnate to bipinnately compound leaves (small, gray-green to green oval leaflets), gray twigs, brown to silver gray bark which splits into platey ridges with age
· twigs, branches, trunks can produce long, branched thorns (up to 12" long), making it difficult to pass through a thicket of these young trees for cattle or people
· is dioecious, with long (8-12") twisting, brown pods on female trees
· this, along with cedar, blackberries, multiflora rose, can spring up and choke out an unmanaged pasture
· Note: a naturally thornless variety of this species exists, and is widely used for landscaping (Thornless Honeylocust) – its seedlings are mostly thornless