BLACK LOCUST
Leaf, one-third natural size. Twig and flower, two-thirds natural size.
The twigs and branchlets are armed with straight or slightly curved sharp, strong spines, sometimes as much as 1 inch in length which remain attached to the outer bark for many years. The bark is dark brown and divides into strips as the tree grows older.
The leaves are pinnate, or feather-like, from 6 to 10 inches in length, consisting of from 7 to 19 oblong thin leaflets.
The flowers are fragrant, white or cream-colored, and appear in early spring in graceful pendent racemes. The fruit is a pod from 3 to 5 inches long containing 4 to 8 small hard seeds which ripen late in the fall. The pod splits open during the winter, discharging the seeds. Some seeds usually remain attached to each half of the pod; the pod thus acts as a wing upon which the seeds are borne to considerable distances before the strong spring winds.
The wood is yellow in color, coarse-grained, very heavy, very hard, strong, and very durable in contact with the soil. It is used extensively for fence posts, poles, tree nails, insulator pins and occasionally for lumber and fuel.
The tree is very rapid in growth in youth but short-lived. It spreads by underground shoots and is useful for holding and reclaiming badly gullied lands. The usefulness of the black locust is, however, very greatly limited by the fact that it is subject to great damage from an insect known as the locust borer.
