Flora of North America species comparison

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Gleditsia triacanthos

honey-locust, thorny locus
Habit Trees to 40 m, trunk to 60–90 cm diam., armed (usually unarmed in cultivation); bark to 12–20 mm thick, lengthwise fissures forming narrow, rough plates or ridges; twigs slender, green-red to brown; thorns long, pointed, usually forked, sometimes extensively so, sometimes clustered.
Leaves

15–20 cm, surfaces glabrate, primary veins puberulent; bipinnate: pinnae 2–6(–8) pairs, sometimes 1+ pinnae replaced by an abnormally large, single leaflet to 6 cm, leaflets (2–)5–8 pairs, blades 1.3–2.5 cm, length 1.5–2 times width; pinnate: slightly petiolulate, petiolules glabrate, leaflets 10–14 pairs, blades ovate-oblong, 1.5–3.5 cm, length 1.5–2 times width, surfaces abaxially pale green, adaxially shiny, dark green.
Racemes

5–9 cm.
Flowers

perianth-hypanthium 3–5 mm;

calyx lobes unequal, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, hairy;

corolla oval to oblong;

stamens 5–7(–10);

ovary woolly.
Legumes

laterally compressed and plump, oblong, straight or curved and twisted in age, 20–40 × 2–3(–4) cm, ± indehiscent;

valves ± woody, pulp prominent.
Seeds

4–25(–30), compressed, ovoid-elliptic, 0.9 × 0.5 cm.
2n

= 28.

Gleditsia triacanthos
Phenology Flowering May–Jun.
Habitat Bottomlands, disturbed areas.
Elevation 0–2500 m. (0–8200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; NS; ON [Introduced in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Widespread use of Gleditsia triacanthos for hundreds of years as a planted tree has greatly expanded the range and also obscured its original native area, which appears to have been the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Great Plains (E. L. Little 1971). Its natural habitat was also centered in forested bottomlands, but because of its wide horticultural use it can now be found in a wide range of upland habitats.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (excluding Mimosoid clade) > Gleditsia
Sibling taxa
G. aquatica
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1056. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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