File:Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of Forestry), no. 11 (1901) (20508176171).jpg

Title: Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of Forestry), no. 11
Identifier: bulletinpennsylv11penx (find matches)
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Pennsylvania. Dept. of Forestry
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa. : The Department : WM. Stanley Ray, state printer of Pennsylvania
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
'
Text Appearing After Image:
PLATE XCV. HONEY LOCUST. 1. Flowering hrancli witli mature leaves, x i. 2. Seetion of a branch with frniting pods and a branched thorn, 3. A winter twig with thorns, x J. 4. A Iiranched thorn, x J. 5. A leaf-scar, enlarged. X i. 179 HONEY LOCUST. Gleditsia triacanthos, Linnaeus. GENUS DESCRIPTION—This genus comprises about 11 species of trees which are usually armed on tha branches and trunk with simple or branched thorns. They are distributed in the temperate part of Asia and eastern North America. Fossil representatives of this genus have been reported from Europe. Three species are native to eastern North America, one Inhabiting Texas, one the southern and south-central United States, and one described here. The generic name is in commemoration of the German botanist, John Gottlieb Gleditsch. FORM—A medium-sized tree usually from 40-50 ft. high with a diameter of 1-2 ft. but may reach a height of 140 ft. with a diameter of 4-6 feet. Trunk usually short but when, grown in very close stands may be rather clean and long. Crown broad, obovate, round-topped, high on account of lateral drooping branches. BARK—On young trunks smooth covered with many, very conspicuous, raised, oblong lenticels; on old trunks grayish-brown to almost black, sometimes smooth but usually roughened by a few fissures and thick, firm, broad ridges with projecting edges. Bark on trunks is often covered with many thorns. See Figs. 59 and 04. TWIGS—Rather stout, zigzag, smooth, glossy, with enlarged nodes; greenish-red to brown, covered with few, small, scattered lenticels which become larger in time; pith thick and white. Twigs frequently bear thorns which are often branched and contain reddish-brown pith. BUDS—Alternate; terminal bud absent; small, usually 3-5 at a node, placed one above another; upper ones scaly and visible, lowest one not scaly, nor visible except as a dot. Some buds are slow in dOA eloping. LEAVES—Alternate, singly or doubly compound, 7-8 inches long. Petioles fiattened, grooved above, enlarged at base. When singly compound with 18-28 leaflets; when doubly compound with 8-14 pinnae and edch with usually 18-20 leaflets. Leaflets lanceolate-oblong, li-2 inches long, rounded at the buc-e and apex, somewhat serrate on margins. LEAF-SCARS—Alternate, 2-ranked or more than 2-ranked, U-shaped; var)ying in width; broadest about the 8 bundle-scars and narrower between. FLOWERS—Appear about May or June. Polygamus, small, greenish. Staminate flowers arranged in short hairy racemes with short stalks. Pistillate flowers in few-flowered, rather elongated and solltarv racemes. FRUIT—A more or less twisted, flat, and reddish-brown pod, 10-18 inches long, containing miny flat, oval, brownish seeds. The pods are thin, do not split open, often persist into winter, and occasionally are produced in large numbers. WOOD—King-porous; rays conspicuous on account of their brilliancy; hard, strong, heavy, durable in contact with the soil; heartwood bright reddish-brown with thin pale sapwood. Weighs about 42 lbs. per cubic foot. Used mainly for fence posts and rails, hubs of wheels, and general construction. In time its use will be extended and it may be grown for timber. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS—The Honey Locust, also known as the Sweet Locust, Thorn Tree, Three-thorued Acacia, and Honey Shucks, can be distinguished by its large branched thorns located above the leaf-scars. A thornless variety is, however, known. The once-com- pound or sometimes twice-compound evenly-pinnate and alternate leaves together with the leathery fruit pod from 10-18 inches long and the grayish-brown to black bark often covered with conspicuous oblong lenticels are also characteristic. A longitudinal section of a twig just above the origin of a leal or a leaf-scar will usually show flve separated and superposed buds, the upper scaly and externally visible, tl^ lowest not scaly and hidden beneath the bark. RANGE—Ontario through Pennsylvania to Florida, westward to Kansas and Texas. DISTRIBUTION IN PENNSYLVANIA—Found as a native or planted tree in all parts of the State. Its original distribution in this State was limited almost entirely to the region west of the Allegheny Mountains, except a few local outposts east of them. At present it is common as a planted tree in the entire eastern portion of the State and in many places has escaped cultivation. HABITAT—It develops best in rich soil along moist river bottoms but will grow in any fertile soil which is not too wet. It demands plenty of light. IMPORTAIiCE OF THE SPECIES—This tree is of little commercial importance as a timber tree in Pennsylvania because it is limited in its distribution. Most of the existing trees of this State are open grown and not forest grown, therefore, too knotty to be of any commercial value. If properly planted it will produce excellent wood. It grows rapidly, is free from Insect aad fungal enemies, has an attractive form, and bears graceful foliage. The leaves come out late in spring iind, hence, it is not of much value for shade. I

Note About Images