Range: North Carolina across to southern Missouri, south to Texas, east to Florida.
Distinguishing Features: The short, 1- or 2-seeded legume without pulp differentiates this locust from the Honey Locust.
HONEY LOCUST
Gleditsia triacanthos L.
Growth Form: Medium tree to 70 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown broadly rounded, often with dropping outer branches; trunk straight, rather stout, usually with large, purple-brown, 3-parted thorns.
Bark: Dark brown, deeply furrowed and scaly at maturity.
Twigs: Slender, angular, reddish-brown, smooth, zigzag, with 3-parted or unbranched thorns; leaf scars alternate, more or less 3-lobed, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Rounded, nearly hidden beneath the leaf scars, dark brown, smooth, up to ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, often doubly pinnately compound, with many leaflets; leaflets oblong to oblong-lanceolate, rounded or slightly pointed at the tip, rounded at the slightly asymmetrical base, minutely toothed along the edges, smooth except for some hairs along the veins, up to 1½ inches long, less than half as wide.
Flowers: Some flowers with both stamens and pistils, others with only one or the other, in elongated clusters up to 3 inches long, yellowish, small, appearing in May and June.