Honey locust

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Honey locust bud

Honey locust fruit

Honey locust leaf

Honey locust thorns

Honey locust bark

Honey locust bud

Honey locust in winter

Honey locust flowers

Honey locust fruit

Honey locust fruit

Honey locust thorns

Honey locust thorns

Honey locust leaflets

Honey locust bark

Honey locust staminate flowers

Honey locust staminate flowers

Honey locust

Morphology

Trunk

Erect, diameter 1 to 2 feet, branching 6 to 16 feet above ground; branches ascending, dividing numerous times into smaller horizontal branches; bark of young trees smooth, reddish-brown; bark of mature trees dark gray to nearly black, deeply fissured with narrow ridges or long, thin plates; trunk and branches often densely beset with thorns; thorns simple to branched, stout, 1.2 to 8 inches long, reddish-brown, shiny, round in cross-section, base flattened.

Twigs

Often zigzag, rigid, shiny, reddish-brown to grayish-brown; nodes somewhat enlarged; leaf scar irregularly heart-shaped; bundle scars 3.

Leaves

Alternate, deciduous, pinnately or twice pinnately compound, 6 to 11 inches long; leaflets in 7-16 pairs, elliptic-oblong to lanceolate-oblong or narrowly ovate, .75 to 1.6 inch long, .4 to .5 inch wide; upper surface glabrous, green; lower surface paler, yellowish-green, sparsely short-hairy; margins entire to remotely round-toothed; stalk 1.2 to 2 inches long, grooved, short-hairy, base enlarged; tip rounded; leaflets of twice-pinnate leaves smaller than those of pinnate leaves.

Flowers

Appear after leaves in racemes, male and female flowers usually on separate trees; staminate racemes spike-like, 1-7 from spurs, 2-4 inches long, many-flowered; staminate flowers small, numerous, crowded, sessile to short-stalked, yellow pubescent, in 3's, center flower opening first; calyx bell-shaped, 3-5-lobed, green, hairy; petals 3-5, 1/12 inch long, greenish-white, hairy; stamens 3-8; pistillate racemes usually solitary, spike-like, 1.2 to 2 inches long, 8-15-flowered; flowers widely spaced, similar to male flowers.

Fruit

September; pods, drooping, straight or curved, twisting with age, flat, 4-14+ inches long, 1 to 1.2 inches wide, purplish-brown; velvety pubescent when young, glabrous when mature; base stalk-like; tip pointed; seeds 6-27, oval, .2 to .4 inch wide, flattened, hard, brown or olive.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist woodlands, stream banks, pastures, roadsides, hillsides, fence rows; prefers deep, rich loam, but found in a variety of soils.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Squirrels eat the seeds and deer and cattle will browse the leaves. Songbirds and morning doves nest in honey locust. Native Americans used the ripe, raw pods for food and made a beverage by soaking the pods in water. The bark was steeped and the liquid taken for colds, fevers, and whooping cough and an infusion of pods taken for measles. The thorns were used as needles and weapons.

Additional Notes