Common names: honey locust, common honey locust

Scientific names: Gleditsia triacanthos

Seasons of significant use: fall, winter

Characteristics: Native, perennial tree to 100.0 feet. Trunk often with stout thorns; bark gray, brown, or back, usually fissured into long, narrow, scaly ridges; branches and twigs with stout, shiny, branched or unbranched thorns (with up to 3 branches per thorn); leaves deciduous, alternate, usually once (sometimes twice) pinnately compound, with 10-36 leaflets; flowers perfect or imperfect, in dense axillary racemes; fruit is pod to 1.5 feet, usually twisted, ripens September-October. Flowers April-June.

Plant community type: Primarily in bottomlands but also in uplands. Often an understory tree in wooded bottomlands with adequate light penetration. Frequently found along wooded-open edges. Often one of the first trees to reestabish in cleared bottomlands.

Comments: Root sprouts readily.

More Plant Photos and Descriptions:
Appendix C: Plants by Common Name
Appendix C: Plants by Scientific Name
Appendix C: Plants Listed by Family