Honeylocust

 Gleditsia triacanthos

Identification Information

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021

Time:  5:30 p.m.

Location:  Sweet Orr Commons (23 E. 6th Street, Pottstown, PA 19464)

Habitat:  Temperate Mixed Forest

Weather conditions:  84 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly humid, some cloud cover

After a day at one of my terrestrial habitats, I stopped by my niece's apartment to visit (and get cold water).  We used to live together, so I remembered some of the trees in the courtyard that I used to love.

The big Honeylocust was wonderful as a shade tree, and I enjoy the sound of the wind blowing through its leaves.  Those leaves are over half a foot long and compound.  The leaflets are oval-shaped and only an inch long.  I originally identified it by the strange end leaflet, which always seemed out of place because it was not like other oddly-pinnate leaves where the last one pointed as an extension of the stem... it pointed off to one side.

In the fall, the leaves turn an awesome, bright yellow.  The seed pod is formed, and I remember that by the thousands of them that littered the courtyard floor.

The identifying characteristic that I noticed on this trip was the bark.  I could see that initially it probably just had minor horizontal ridges.  But because this is an older tree (trunk diameter is about 2 feet, height is approximately 50 feet), the bark has expanded and settled into big plates.  (Brockman, 1986, p. 188)