How do you identify different types of locust trees?

Answer 1

Where I live in New York, there are two basic kinds of locust trees: The honeylocust and the black locust.
Basic characteristics of locust trees are that they can have thorns, the leaves are compound (many leaflets along a main stalk called a rachis compose one leaf), and the seed pods resemble green beans.
The honeylocust, Gleditsia triacanthos that can be either with thorns or without. The variety that does not have thorns is commonly planted in cities as a street tree. This locust has leaflets that can be both pinately compound and bipinately compound. Bipinately compound basically means that there is a branching off of the main rachis with a smaller rachis and smaller leaflets. I wish I could draw a picture, that would make it easier to explain... The leaflets are oval and come to a point at the end. Also, triacanthos, the scientific name means three thorns. If you have a thorny tree, the thorns should branch off in groups of three or in factors of three. Also the seed pods of the honey locust are very large, sometimes a foot or more long. They can curl up and are leathery and reddish. Inside the pod are the dark seeds about as big as your pinkie finger nail.
To tell the black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia from the honey locust, the easiest thing is to look at the leaves. They are compound like the honeylocust and are pinnately compound, but are rarely bipinnately compound. Also, the leaves are more round and do not come to a point at the end. When looking for thorns on this tree look on the branch. You should find two thorns every time you find some: one thorn exactly opposite the other along the branch. When you look at the seedpods, they are much smaller than the honeylocust. They can be about half the size, about 6 inches max. The pod is not as red, nor is it as leathery. Inside, the seeds are very tiny and dark in color.

I hope that helped! :)

Answer 2

Locust Tree Identification

Answer 3

There's mainly five types: black locust, thornless honeylocust, sunburst honeylocust, morraine honeylocust, and shademaster honeylocust. Black locust has light brown pods that are maybe 6 inches. Thornless honeylocust pods are dark brown, almost black and twice as large. Sunburst honeylocust is like the other types but has more yellow in its leaves. The last two do not have pods, never, but are very hard to distinguish from each other. Well, there is another type of honeylocust but it has thorns and pods.

Edit: I've added some links for pictures and would like to briefly quote the anonymous authors here:

"Although similar in general appearance to Honey locust, it lacks that tree's characteristic long branched spines on the trunk, instead having the pairs of short thorns at the base of each leaf; the leaflets are also much broader."

So it is describing some of the differences between the black locust and the honey locust trees.

Answer 4

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RE:
How do you identify different types of locust trees?

Answer 5

the leaflets are smaller on a honey locust