trees with …

twigs=red-brown, zig-zag from ⬮ leaf scar to leaf scar;  bark=​___ smooth, with light-colored ⬬ horizontal lenticels
🍯︎ honey locust  Gleditsia triacanthos
pod length >10 cm (>4 in);  ⬮ leaf scar sunken, with two buds, one above the other
☕︎ Kentucky coffeetree  Gymnocladus dioicus

tree=flat top;  pods=long-tapered
mimosa silk tree  Albizia julibrissin

⬮ leaf scar surrounds ❄ winter bud
◼︎ Kentucky yellowwood  Cladrastis kentukea
⬮ leaf scar does not surround ❄ winter bud;  bark contains many flower buds
◼︎ eastern redbud  Cercis canadensis

or herbs with …

leaves=❋ whorled[?] five-to-28 leaflets;
flower=violet, each bilateral (🪞 mirror) (☹ face-like) symmetry[?]
lupine (bluebonnet)  genus Lupinus "This Gorgeous Plant is a Hummingbird Magnet You'll want to Grow in your Yard"

Learn more about 🥜︎ legume / bean / pea family Fabaceae

Part of order Fabales.

Legumes are native 🌍︎🌎︎🌏︎ worldwide, in all tropical, temperate and subarctic forests and grasslands, absent only in arctic and antarctic tundra, and 🏜 the most-arid deserts.  🗺 Map (🇨🇦 Canada, 🇺🇸 USA) (color key).

Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)

Most legumes cooperate with a bacterium that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants and animals.

That allows these plants to:

  • outcompete non-nitrogen-fixing plants in poorer soils, and/or
  • have seeds and foliage with more protein.

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.

🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Flora of North America Wikipedia

Navigate to pages that link here

🏠︎ sustainable landscaping and gardening with native plants 🌳︎🍃︎ broadleaf branches, ╟ alternate, list of attributes, no catkins, no thorns

mimosa silk tree  Albizia julibrissin eastern redbud  Cercis canadensis ◼︎ Kentucky yellowwood  Cladrastis kentukea 🍯︎ honey locust  Gleditsia triacanthos ☕︎ Kentucky coffeetree  Gymnocladus dioicus ◼︎ 🍀︎ white sweet clover  Melilotus alba ◼︎ 🍀︎ yellow sweet clover  Melilotus officinalis ◼︎ black locust  Robinia pseudoacacia