The name, Robinia, was given to this genus in honor of Jean Robin, a French botanist, and the gardener of Henry IV. of France. The specific name, pseud-acacia (false acacia), arose from the supposition that this tree was a species of the Egyptian acacia from its prickly branches and pinnate leaves, which are like those of that tree. It was called “locust tree” by English missionaries who collected it first and fancied that it was the tree that nourished John the Baptist in the wilderness.
It was one of the first American trees to attract attention in Europe, and it has been extensively cultivated there.
The locust is not a native of New England, but it grows wild south of Pennsylvania and it is widely naturalized throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
The clammy locust (Robinia viscosa) is a small tree or shrub easily distinguished from the common locust by its stems and young branches, which are clammy and sticky to the touch. It is a native of the mountains of North Carolina, and it has been extensively cultivated as far north as Eastern Massachusetts.
The specific name, viscosa, is from the Latin adjective meaning full of birdlime, sticky, and refers to the peculiar clamminess of the stems.
Robinia hispida, the rose acacia, is an ornamental shrub cultivated in gardens and found growing wild from Virginia southward. The specific name, hispida (bristly), refers to the long bristles on the branches, leaves, and pods which distinguish this shrub from the other species of the genus.
Honey Locust Gleditsia triacanthos
A large tree with a smooth dark bark, cracking in thick lateral plates on old trees. Long, branching thorns growing in clusters out of the trunk and on the branches. Smooth, shining brown twigs and prominent U-shaped, alternate leaf-scars. There are no terminal buds, and the lateral ones are superposed, inconspicuous, rounded, and partly concealed in the stem. The fruit is a large, pea-like pod, often hanging on the trees through the winter.
HONEY LOCUST
Gleditsia triacanthos