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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 97: HONEY LOCUST
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

HONEY LOCUST

Gleditsia triacanthos, L.

Form.—Height 40-50 feet, diameter 1-2 feet; trunk usually short and armed with branched thorns; crown broad, round-topped.

Leaves.—Alternate, singly or doubly compound, 7-8 inches long, the single compound leaves having 18-28 leaflets; the double compound leaves 8-14 divisions each, with 18-20 leaflets; leaflets lanceolate-oblong, somewhat serrate.

Flowers.—May-June; polygamous; small, greenish.

Fruit.—A flattened and twisted pod, 10-18 inches long, containing oval brownish seeds.

Bark.—Sometimes smooth but often roughened on old trunks, by shallow fissures and thick ridges with projecting edges, and by branched thorns.

Wood.—Hard, heavy, strong, durable in contact with the soil, bright reddish brown heartwood, whitish sapwood.

Range.—Ontario to Florida, west to Kansas and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Not common in any part of West Virginia, but found in scattered stands throughout the State, except at high elevations. Rare in Upshur and other high hilly counties west of the Alleghanies, and also in the Eastern Panhandle.

Habitat.—Thrives best in fertile soil of river bottoms, but grows well in other situations.

Notes.—The wood of Honey Locust is used principally for fencing, wheel hubs, and general construction; but the tree is too rare and not of sufficient size to give it any commercial importance.