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New York Champion Honey Locust Gleditsia triacanthos Middleburg, Schoharie Valley, New York Circumference = 170 inches (14.2 feet) Height = 95 feet Average Crown Spread = 67 feet Total Points = 282 Nominated: 2000 by: David O'Connor

The Honey Locust, also called Sweet Locust, Thorn Tree or Three-thorned Acacia, is the most beautiful pod-bearing tree found in New York. This handsome tree's thin canopy of fine-textured limbs make it a popular street tree in many communities.

This tremendous Honey Locust specimen is growing in the front yard of a private home in the Schoharie Valley of eastern New York. In 1991, a severe ice storm toppled two major limbs onto the west wing of the house, reducing its crown spread slightly, but not changing its other measurements.

The Honey Locust is native to the lake region of western New York, but has spread by extensive planting, and locally escaped cultivation. As a member of the Legume Family, the Honey Locust fixes nitrogen from the air into nitrates in nodules on its roots.

Identification

Range: The Honey Locust has an extensive range from Ontario to Kansas, and south to Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas.

Size: In favored sites, it can grow to a height of 80 feet, with a four foot diameter.

Leaves are alternate, singly or doubly compound, 7 to 8 inches long. When singly compound, the have 18 to 28 leaflets; when doubly compound, they have 8 to 14 pinnae, each with 18 to 20 leaflets.

Flowers appear in May or June, are greenish, of two kinds. Pollen-bearing are arranged in short tassels; pod-bearing occur in few-flowered clusters.

Fruit is a thin, flat, somewhat twisted, reddish-brown pod, 10 to 18 inches long, containing many small, flat seeds which often persist far into winter.

Bark on both young stems is smooth and brownish,, dotted with many oblong breathing pores. Old bark becomes grayish-brown to black, rough, with shallow furrows and firm ridges.

Twigs are smooth, glossy, greenish-brown. Branches usually bear distinctive, large, three-pronged, sharp-pointed thorns.

Buds are very small, usually three at a node, placed above one another.

Wood is hard, heavy, strong, reddish-brown, with pale sapwood. It is very durable in contact with soil, and the wood of choice for posts, rails, piers, and general construction.

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TERRA: The Earth Restoration and Reforestation Alliance — www.championtrees.org — updated 8/14/2003