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Honeylocust
Gleditsia triacanthos |
Another month down and two to go. I chose a spooky tree for Halloween, although some would vote for the White Oak in the winter with its big old branches sticking out at 90 degree angles like so many arms raised. Honeylocust is spooky enough with all of its spines poised to impale you.
Honeylocust is an impressive tree! I am very curious about the evolutionary need for the spines. Some plants have prickers and other pointy appendages, but this tree just goes crazy with them. Given that they take resources from the tree to create, there must be an advantage to having them. If the advantage is great, then why don't other trees have them? The reason to have them would seem to be to keep critters from having access to the trunk. At this point in time it's hard to think of an animal that would have a deleterious affect on the plant, at least an affect that is solved by spines; but was there an animal in the past, perhaps even a dinosaur, that loved the bark, or that climbed the tree to eat the leaves?
If anyone knows, or has ideas about, this mystery animal, please comment. We're dying to know!
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| The pods are quite long |
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| A typical summer branch |
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| Some of the leaves are once-compound, some are twice-compound |
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| Ouch! |
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