Black locust

[ken45]

There may actually be a dozen varieties of locust. Like elm, it's a rather amazing species with different properties from one variety to the next. I do know one thing--I try to avoid locust trees with thorns, and some will run all the way down the trunk and reach a length of 2-1/2". These are mean critters.

On the other hand, several other varieties of locust have no thorns at all and they make excellent firewood with amazing density that rivals oak and hickory. They also season faster and have marvelous rot resistance.

Black locust (Robina) has 1/4" thorns on the small branches. They are NOT a PROBLEM.

Honey locust (Gledista) has 1 to 6" thorns all over, including the trunk. They can go through a tractor tire.

Here are photos of honey locust

Ken

 

[branchbuzzer]

Anyone have a pic of a locust either on the ground or without leaves?
I have only seen, what I called, a black locust and it had thorns like you wouldn't believe. Gret big trees reminiscent of a black walnut. I sure would like to find some. Anything to look for in a woodlot that would indicate you have locust? Mine has predominately hard maple, cherry, ash and elm. I see oak leaves on the ground but haven't found the tree yet. Small Beech and cottonwood as well. Possibly a shag bark hickory but he is only about 6 inches right now. Now that the big guys are logged off he might stand a chance.

I'll put some pics up in a bit of some BL on the ground and standing dead. The leaves on BL are real small, so you won't find many of them. Look along any fence lines, that's a good place to start.

You'll probably be dead by the time the hickory gets big....:msp_smile:

 

[branchbuzzer]

k, here we go. Now keep in mind, these are BL from the S. Appalachians. Most of the ones I see up MI way are a bit different, usually the crown is much more spreading, whereas these mostly have a crown more like an ash tree. On my parent's property up in the Thumb, they have some that have the form of a live oak - real spread out with horiz. branches. 2 sets of pics:

 

[branchbuzzer]

2nd set:

Be nice if that last one was locust....:jester:

 

[darkbyrd]

That looks just like what I'm picking over, except on a whole lot steeper ground! neighbor!

 

[branchbuzzer]

That looks just like what I'm picking over, except on a whole lot steeper ground! neighbor!

That's why they're still there.....

 

[darkbyrd]

That's why they're still there.....

Probably... but I bet this land hasn't been picked over for firewood in a very long time. The owner and residents aren't wood burners. I have a big locust to get down, I think I might make a video of the porta-power in action on that one. Need this rain to stop and things to dry out, I don't want to mess up the neighbor's roads running them when they're too wet.

 

[Bushmans]

Wow! I have some trees that look exactly like that but I passed them off as cottonwood. Well the bark looks the same and we all know I'm great:msp_thumbdn: at bark ID hence the pile of box elder stacked up in my backyard.
So thorns are not always present? I'll take some pics tomorrow when I'm over there and let you see for yourself. They are right on the edge of the fence that borders the freeway. of course they are all leaning towards I-69.
Thanx for the info!

 

[owbguy]

thorns on black locust are mainly on small branches, or on the trunk of juvenile trees. Once old enough to bark up, the portions of tree you want will be thornless. You still have to deal with thorns on small branches and, of course, suckers with thorns. This wood pile has 2 rows of locust; the two rows on far right. The one farthest right has been there 3 years.

The two trees immediately behind the wood pile are black locust.

 

[branchbuzzer]

Probably... but I bet this land hasn't been picked over for firewood in a very long time.

I meant that the ones in my pics are still there because they're inaccessible...

 

[Sagetown]

Here's an oddity. I removed a large Honey Locust the other day, and after cleaning up all the large thorns I could, I decided to try and split some of the large trunk rounds. I kid you not, some of those rounds had a large thorn growing inside the round itself. Wish I'd have taken a picture of them, but I do have my son as a witness.

 

[darkbyrd]

Wow! I have some trees that look exactly like that but I passed them off as cottonwood. Well the bark looks the same and we all know I'm great:msp_thumbdn: at bark ID hence the pile of box elder stacked up in my backyard.
So thorns are not always present? I'll take some pics tomorrow when I'm over there and let you see for yourself. They are right on the edge of the fence that borders the freeway. of course they are all leaning towards I-69.
Thanx for the info!

Bring a knife or a hatchet, take a picture of the tell-tale "yellow-green" wood inside, and feel how hard it is.

 

[turnkey4099]

That looks just like what I'm picking over, except on a whole lot steeper ground! neighbor!

I sure do wish it grew like that around here!! That would keep me going for 20 years and that would be jusst cleaning up the down stuff. Here the only BL is what was imported. Mostly planted by the settlers. Some has sorta "escaped" and copsed but I haven't seen any of any size yet.

Harry K