Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Gleditsia triacanthos
Common name
Honey locust
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Cultivated as an ornamental or shade tree, sometimes naturalised. Woodland, grassy areas, roadsides, disturbed sites, and near streams. Mainly in Canberra and the Sydney area. Occasional elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced deciduous tree to 30 m high, usually with stout, simple or branched spines to about 18 cm long on the trunk and branches. Suckers from the roots. Older branches develop a thick covering of bark. Younger branches brown, shiny. Leaves alternating up the stems, 10–20 cm long, stalks 3-5 cm long, somewhat hairy. Leaves compound, with 10-32 leaflets, or more often with 4-26 pinnae each with 12–30 leaflets. Leaflets 1–3.8 cm long, 4–12 mm wide, sparsely toothed. Male and female flowers on separate trees, and bisexual flowers also produced. Sepals and petals similar, greenish to creamy yellow, 6-10 in all. Sepals 3-4 mm long, petals 3–6 mm long. Flowers in elongated drooping clusters 5-13 cm long. Flowers Spring to Summer.
Family was Caesalpiniaceae.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions in the Central Tablelands, NSW.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Gleditsia~triacanthos (accessed 18 January, 2021)
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