Scientific Name: Gleditsia triacanthos
Common Name: honey locust
Native Range: Central and eastern North America
Zone: 3 to 8
Plant type & Form: Tree, rounded spreading crown
Height: 60.00 to 80.00 feet
Spread: 60.00 to 80.00 feet
Bloom Time: May to June
Bloom Description: Greenish-yellow
Flower: inconspicuous, greenish yellow to greenish white flowers appear in racemes in late spring
Fruit: long, twisted and flattened, dark purplish-brown seedpods (to 18” long) which mature in late summer and persist well into winter. Seedpods contain numerous flattened, round seeds surrounded by a sweet, sticky pulp
Leaf: 4-8″ long leaves are bipinnately compound and made up of small (up to 1″ long), elliptic to lanceolate leaflets
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Soil type & pH: organically rich, moist, well-drained soils
Maintenance: Medium
Suggested Use: Street Tree
Tolerates: Deer, Drought, Clay Soil, Black Walnut, Air Pollution
Notes: Trunk and branches have stout thorns (to 3” long) that are solitary or three-branched. Thorns on species plants can be just plain nasty.
Identification notes: Look for small compound leaves and long seed pods.
