“…the pods of the Honey Locust are edible and were eaten by the Cherokee…”– Economic and Ethnobotanical Uses
A stand of Gleditsia triacanthos (Harding, 2024)
Gleditsia triacanthos is both Honey Locust’s original and its only currently accepted name (Linnaeus, 1753). This particular individual is a variety known as Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis, which was originally treated as its own species, Gleditsia inermis. In fact, it was classified by Linnaeus himself as such (Linnaeus, 1758). It was later reclassified as a variety of Gleditsia triacanthos (Castiglioni, 1790).
Honey Locust may be confused with various other trees in the same family, such as the Japanese Pagoda Tree (Styphnolobium japonicum). The Japanese Pagoda Tree may have longer leaves, being 5-11 in (12-28 cm) long, the flowers are showy, yellow-white and in large clusters up to 1 ft (30 cm) long, whereas Gleditsia triacanthos’ are much smaller and in shorter, dense elongated clusters.
‘Inermis’ means ‘unarmed’ in latin, referring to its lack of thorns.
Honey Locust has long been thought to be unable to fix nitrogen like most other legumes. However, some researchers have found that it may have the ability to fix nitrogen after all, even without the nodules associated with most nitrogen-fixing plants. Evidence was found that the necessary microbes can survive and spread in Honey Locust’s root system, thereby raising the possibility that a nitrogen-fixing symbiotic relationship exists within the species (Bryan, 1995; Bryan et al., 1996).
Native
Introduced
Honey Locust is a versatile tree generally associated with abandoned pastures and riparian woodland areas (Schnabel & Hamrick, 1990). Though they are generally found in moist areas, their seedlings do not do very well in these areas, and its growth is limited by shade. This, combined with the fact that Honey Locust is found around former Cherokee settlements, suggests that the Cherokee cultivated this tree, or at least created more ideal habitat for it by land clearing (Warren, 2016). The seeds can be dispersed by deer (Guiden, 2013).
Honey Locust is currently listed as ‘Least Concern’ according to the IUCN (Stritch, 2018). It is even considered invasive in parts of South America, Europe, and Australia where it was introduced (Fernandez et al., 2017).
