Hunter Island Black Locust

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

"As the strongest timber in North America, black locust helped build Jamestown and hardened the navy that decided the War of 1812, yet today few Americans have heard of it." Live Science

Deciduous Hardwood

Native to the Eastern United States, now naturalized world wide.

Leaves pinnately once-compound , 6-12 inches in length

Leaflets entire, alternately arranged, egg shaped,, dull green above, paler below

Trunk usually divided, deeply furrowed in older trees

Characteristic paired thorns on branches at leaf scars, but not always present

Medium Size Tree, averaging 50', typically 70' to 80'

Seeds in long woody pods, eaten by bobwhite, pheasant, mourning dove, cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, deer.

Nitrogen fixing at roots

Typical tree of disturbed areas in Oak-Hickory forests and Old Field Succession

A rapidly growing successional species, can spread by roof sprouts forming clones

Flowers are white, insect pollinated..........extremely beneficial to bees

Flowers typically around ten years of age

Flowering Black Locust are attractive trees filled with fragrant white blossoms in early spring making them easily identifiable. On Hunter Island they are instantly visible in the early spring canopy when in flower.

The central trail to island summit of Hunter Island holds the greatest concentration of trees in spite of many specimens cut down, as of this writing, and lying on the forest floor.

85 trees in full flower were counted. Almost all trees are found along the well traveled trails with only one growing in full sand on the eastern shoreline. There were almost none spotted in the deeper interior wood.

Black Locust is shade intolerant and thrives in open woodlands and dry soils. It is a unique example of a native tree that has come to be considered invasive on its own continent. A typical early successional pioneer species, it is native to the Eastern United States but has spread across the several continents via human distribution.