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Gleditsia triacanthos
Also called Honeylocust, Thornless honey locust, Honey shuck, Sweet Locust, Common Honeylocust, Sweet Bean, Thorny Common Honeylocust
Honey locust is a fast-growing, deciduous tree in the pea family, native to central North America and widely planted in cities. It tolerates poor soils, pollution and drought once established, and grows best with reasonable moisture.
The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), also known as the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust, is a deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae, native to central North America where it is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys. Honey locust trees are highly adaptable to different environments, and the species has been introduced worldwide. Outside its natural range it can be an aggressive, damaging invasive species.
Due to the honey locust's tolerance of urban problems such as salt spray, compacted soils, poor aeration, constrained planting areas, and pollution, it has been widely planted in cities. In addition it will adapt to relatively dry conditions and either alkaline or acidic soils. Once established it is also drought tolerant, though it grows best with good moisture. It was very widely planted as a replacement for American elm trees killed by Dutch elm disease, becoming somewhat overplanted in the 1970s.
However, due to its wide planting many problems have been discovered. Like maples and oaks, honey locust is particularly vulnerable to Ganoderma root rots, a fungal infection of the roots and lower trunk of the tree. Three insects are the main pests that attack the honey locusts in urban areas, honeylocust plant bug (Blepharidopterus chlorionis), mimosa webworm (Homadaula anisocentra), and honeylocust spider mite (Platytetranychus multidigituli). Thornless cultivars are especially susceptible to damage by the Asian mimosa webworm.
The native range of the honey locust is widely agreed to be from northern Mexico through the Gulf Coast of the United States, northwards into the Midwest, parts of the US East Coast, and the southernmost parts of Canada. In Canada it is a rare forest species found in southern Ontario near Lake Huron, Ontario, or Erie. However, Plants of the World Online (POWO) lists it as introduced to Ontario while NatureServe and World Plants list it as native. It is listed as native to Nova Scotia by World Plants, but as introduced by POWO and not recorded by NatureServe. It is also recorded by NatureServe as growing as an introduced plant on Prince Edward Island.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Honey locust by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
