Honey Locust

triacanthos: 3-spined

Shrub or small tree, armed with stout 3-forked spines, grown as a garden ornamental and known as a very occasional naturalized escape. Bark fairly smooth but splitting into vertical fissures on older stems. Leaves variably pinnate or 2-pinnate, even on the same branch, with a single pair of pinnae; leaflets 8-13 pairs per pinna, opposite, oblong-elliptic, up to 3.5 cm long, glossy green; margin finely scalloped. Flowers in axillary heads, unisexual on different trees, small, green. Fruit a flat woody pod, 15-30 cm long, often twisted when older, indehiscent.

North America.