Bristly locust

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Bristly locust

Bristly locust bud

Bristly locust twig bristles

Bristly locust inflorescence

Bristly locust leaves

Bristly locust leaf

Bristly locust flower

Bristly locust bark

Morphology

Trunk

Stems or trunk erect; branches armed, spines .2 to 3.5 inch, hard, stout, young branches also usually densely hispid with reddish-purple hairs; bark gray to grayish brown, somewhat warty, with irregular plates; wood light brown, hard.

Twigs

Grayish brown to reddish brown, rigid, somewhat rough, hispid to stipitate-hispid, sometimes glabrate; leaf scars triangular to 3-lobed, .08 to .12 inch long, .06 to .1 wide; pith white; buds brown, cone-shaped, to .04 inch, apex obtuse, scales rusty-pubescent.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, odd-pinnately compound, 6 to 12 inches; stipules persistent, linear-subulate, initially soft, .2 to .5 inch, eventually becoming spines; petiole .35 to .7 inch, hispid; petiolules .04 to .08 inch; stipels needle-like, .08 to .2 inch; pinnae 7-13, opposite or subopposite, blade elliptic, .6 to 2 inches long, .4 to 1.4 inch wide, base rounded, margins entire, apex rounded, lower surfaces pale green, glabrate or sparsely pubescent, upper surfaces green, glabrous.

Flowers

Inflorescences axillary from lateral buds on old wood, racemes, 4–15-flowered, lax; pedicels 4–7 mm, stipitate-glandular. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; sepals 5, connate, calyx tube campanulate, .2 to .24 inch, pubescent and stipitate-glandular, lobes triangular, .12 to .28 inch, pubescent and stipitate-glandular, apex acuminate; petals 5, pink, banner usually greenish yellow or light yellow in the center, clawed, banner ascending or reflexed, .6 to 1 inch tall, .7 to .8 inch wide, wings projecting, .6 to .8 inch long, .24 to .35 inch wide, keel petals connate distally along abaxial margins, enclosing stamens and pistil, .63 to .8 inch long, .28 to .4 inch wide; stamens 10, diadelphous (9 +1); pistil 1, ovary superior, 1-locular; style .35 to .5 inch, often hispid distally.

Fruit

Apparently not fruiting in Kansas; legumes, brown to reddish brown, oblong, compressed laterally, 1.2 to 2 inches long, .4 to .5 inch wide, densely hispid, base slightly stipitate, apex apiculate; seeds 3-5, brown, often mottled with purplish-brown spots, reniform, compressed laterally, .2 to .28 inch long, .12 to .14 inch wide, smooth.

Ecology

Habitat

Woodlands, roadsides, old farmsteads.

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes