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Also called thorny locust.
Part of legume / pea family Fabaceae in order Fabales.
Native to the 🇺🇸 USA Mississippi River and Ohio River basins, and surrounding areas east of the 🗻︎ Rocky Mountains. 🌎︎ Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48), 🌎︎ map (North America, Central America). Invasive > 🌐︎ various
Uses by native peoples(Ethnobotany database)
Gleditsia hosts caterpillars of 43 speciesof butterflies and moths, in some areas.
Most legumes (but not this species) cooperate with a bacterium that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants and animals.
In the wild, this tree's branches and trunk have large smooth thorns. Often grows in clonal colonies [1] —look around for other stems!
Planting info (SW Michigan).
Honey locust have large tough seedpods, which contain sweet pulp and large seeds, with a thick waterproof coating that needs to be cut or abraded before 🌱︎ germination. This seed protection probably evolved with and to be spread by 🐘︎ mammoth genus Mammuthus or 🐫︎ camel family Camelidae. After the Holocene extinction removed large herbivorous megafauna, poor seed-dispersal caused the plant's range to decline to the central 🇺🇸 USA.Lately, 🐮︎ cattle genus Bos may have taken the role as seed disperser. [2]
[1] "Clonal colony." Wikipedia. Accessed 2019-08-03.
[2] "The Trees That Miss The Mammoths." American Forests. Winter 2010. Accessed 2016-12-06.
🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Michigan Flora MSUE tip sheet Minnesota Wildflowers Missouri Botanical Garden USDA PLANTS db USFS Wikipedia
🏠︎ 🌳︎ broadleaves, ╟ alternate, 🌿︎ compound 🌳︎🍃︎ broadleaf branches, ╟ alternate, list of attributes, no catkins, thorns legume/pea branches family Fabaceae bark (on the trunk)