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honey-locust, thorny locus

swamp-locust, water honeylocust, water-locust

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. Trees to 50 m, trunk to 75 cm diam., armed or unarmed; bark to 4 mm thick, dull gray to red-brown, shallow fissures breaking bark into smooth plates; twigs yellow-brown, becoming gray or red-brown and shiny, smooth; thorns pointed, simple or branched.
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.

10–20 cm, surfaces glabrate or glabrescent; bipinnate: pinnae usually 4 or 5 pairs, sometimes 1+ pinnae replaced by an abnormally large, single leaflet to 6 cm, leaflets 7–9 pairs, blades 1–2.5 cm, length 1.5–2 times width; pinnate: slightly petiolulate, petiolules glabrous, leaflets 7–12 pairs, blades elliptic-oblong, (1.5–)2.5–4 cm, length 1.5–2 times width, surfaces abaxially dull green, adaxially shiny, dark green.

Racemes

5–9 cm.

5–15 cm, staminate flowers clustered.

Pedicels

0–3 mm.

Flowers

perianth-hypanthium 3–5 mm;

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

corolla oval to oblong;

stamens 5–7(–10);

ovary woolly.

perianth-hypanthium 2.5–3 mm;

calyx lobes lanceolate, obtuse, slightly hairy;

corolla oblong;

stamens 3–7(–10);

ovary long-stalked, glabrous.

Legumes

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

valves ± woody, pulp prominent.

long-stalked, flat, straight, asymmetrically ovate, oblique, 3–5(–8) × (0.5–)1.5–2 cm, indehiscent;

valves papery, transversely striate, pulpless.

Seeds

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

1[–3], slightly compressed or subterete, orbicular, 1 × 1 cm.

2n

= 28.

= 28.

Gleditsia triacanthos

Gleditsia aquatica

Phenology Flowering May–Jun. Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Bottomlands, disturbed areas. Swamp forests in Coastal Plain and Mississippi Embayment, areas with long winter flooding, with Nyssa, Taxodium, bottomland Quercus spp., Carya aquatica.
Elevation 0–2500 m. (0–8200 ft.) 0–200 m. (0–700 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]
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MO; MS; NY; SC; TN; TX; WV
[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.)

Gleditsia aquatica is most common in the Mississippi Valley (C. S. Sargent 1922; T. S. Elias 1980). Occurrences away from the southeastern Coastal Plain in southeastern West Virginia, northern Kentucky, and northwestern Illinois are non-native.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (excluding Mimosoid clade) > Gleditsia Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (excluding Mimosoid clade) > Gleditsia
Sibling taxa
G. aquatica
G. triacanthos
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1056. (1753) Marshall: Arbust. Amer., 54. (1785)
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