In 🇬🇧 UK, also called false acacia.
Part of
🥜︎ legume / bean / pea family Fabaceae
in
order Fabales.
Native to 🇺🇸 USA central and East, although
widely planted elsewhere.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48),
🗺 map (🇨🇦 Canada, 🇺🇸 USA)
(color key),
🗺 map (North America, Central America), 
🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Invasive > learn+quiz
Invasive > 🌐︎ global
Invasive > 🌐︎ various
Invasive > 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Canada+USA
Invasive > report it!
Invasive > 🇺🇸 USA
Invasive > Michigan
Native alternatives (Great Lakes green entries). (page 4)
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
☠︎ Toxic[?], particularly in the fruits and seeds.
On No-Planting List by Seneca Nation of Indians SNI. (pages 59 and 64)
Once used to make ⛏ tools, 🏠︎ buildings and ⛵︎ ships, and nurse 🌾︎ crops. Now found useful again.
Robinia hosts caterpillars of 59 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
This plant is also known to be a host for (in areas where invasive)
🐝︎ spotted lanternfly (SLF) Lycorma delicatula.
Like most legumes, this plant cooperates with a bacterium that fixes
atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants and animals.
That allows these plants to:
This makes their seeds and foliage more nutritious to plant-eaters. And growing these plants may improve the quality of worn-out farmland and disturbed soils.
Often grows in clonal colonies
[1]
— look around for other stems!