Plant · P-059

Honey Locust

Gleditsia triacanthos

Honey Locust is a legume that, unlike most of its family, does not fix nitrogen - it earns its place a different way, as a fast-yielding fodder tree. Its sweet pods start bearing within three years, and by year eight a single tree can drop 20 to 75 kg of them, which sheep, cattle, goats and deer all eat eagerly, sometimes choosing the pods over hay or soybean meal. The pod pulp is sweet enough to eat raw, and the roasted seed makes a passable coffee substitute. The wild form carries three-forked thorns up to a foot long, but thornless cultivars exist, and its canopy casts a light, filtered shade that other plants can grow underneath - unusual for a tree this size.