Short Description
The honey locust is deciduous and can grow up to 40 m tall.
The leaves grow alternately on the branches. One leaf consists of 10-30 leaflets (pinnate, feather-like appearance). The leaves are lance-shaped and slightly crenate along their edges.
Bunches of reddish-brown thorns can be found on trunk and branches. The bark has flat openings and flaky patches.
The flowers are inconspicuously greenish-yellow and hang in slender clusters.
The fruits are brownish-red flat seed pods, twisted and up to 40 cm in length. One pod contains numerous seeds.
Features
Honey locust
Gleditsia triacanthos
glossy reddish-brown long thorns
long ribbon-like seed pods
In the city
Honey locusts were often planted in parks and only rarely grows wild. For that reason, they are rarely found outside of designed green spaces. They prefer sunny to semi-shaded sites.
Fun Facts
The seeds are edible. In North America, they are used as food (similar to lentils).
There are also non-thorny species of honey locust.
It flowers from June to July.
Propagation occurs by various species of wildlife and livestock eating the pods and excreting the undamaged seeds. These days, this is mainly done by horses and cows, in earlier periods probably by the Columbian mammoth as well as mastodons and giant ground sloths.
The fruit ripening season is in September to October.
- Endangerment level Germany: not evaluated
The tree originates from North America and is a non-native plant (neophyte).
The leaves are mildly poisonous.
Sources
Blatt, David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gleditsia_triacanthos_inermis_1zz.jpg
Habitus, Bostonian13, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gleditsia_triacanthos_sunburst.jpg
Blütenstand, Andrew Butko, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gleditsia_triacanthos_in_Donetsk_2.jpg
Aas, G. & Riedmiller, A. (2002) Laubbäume. Bestimmen – Kennenlernen – Schützen, Bindlach: Gondrom Verlag.
Roth, L., Daunderer, M. & Kormann, K. (2008) Giftpflanzen - Pflanzengifte. Vorkommen, Wirkung, Therapie. Allergische und phototoxische Reaktionen, Hamburg: Nikol Verlag.
Page „Amerikanische Gleditschie“. : Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date of last revision: 04.09.2015, 07:12 UTC. URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amerikanische_Gleditschie&oldid=145707097 (Accessed: 27.04.2016).