Locust are deciduous trees or shrubs. Winter buds are small and hidden. Terminal buds are absent. Leaves are alternate, compound and odd-pinnate. Branchlets usually have stipular thorns. Pink to white flowers are borne in showy, pendulous racemes. The fruit is a pod.
Robinia pseudoacacia–Black (Yellow) Locust
Black (Yellow) Locust–Robinia pseudoacacia
The black locust occurs throughout the state in all soils and moiture conditions except swamps. Forest trees of black locust occur in the eastern and southerneastern portions of the state. As a forest tree, it attains heights of 80-100 feet and diameters of 30 inches. In other sections of the state it occurs in thickets on clay banks and waste places or singularly in fencrows and is normally smaller in statue.
The leaf is alternative, odd-pinnate, and feather-like with seven to 19 leaflets. Pinnate leaves are feather-like and 6-10 inches (15-25 cm) long. Leaflets are 3/4 -1 1/2 inches (19-38 mm) long and medium green in color. Leaflets are oblong and have entire leaf margins. Foliage is often brown by mid-summer due to the feeding of the black locust leaf miner.
Terminal buds are conspicuously absent. Side buds are usually hidden by the petiole base or sunken beneath the eaf scar. Twigs are glabrous, or only slightly hairy, and a glossy, dark brown. Twigs and branchlets are armed with straight or slightly curved spines up to 1 inch (25 mm) long. Spines are unbranched and may remain attached tothe brance for many years.
June flowers are fragrant and white to ivory in color. Showy flowers are borne in pendant racemes up to 8 inches (20 cm) long. Flowers are the source of nectar for a preferred honey. Flowers are followed in September by a dark brown, pea-like pod from 3-5 inches (8-13 cm) long. The pod splits during the winter scattering some seed while others remain attatched to the two halves. The split pods later act as wings to disperse the remaining seeds before the strong spring winds.
The bark is dark brown and divides into strips as the tree ages. Wood is yellow in color, coarse-grained, dense, and heavy. The heartwood is very durable in conact with the soil and is widely used for fence posts. The wood is also used for insulator pins, lumber, and fuel.
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| Black (Yellow) Locust |