Thornless Honeylocust       gle-DITS-ee-a tri-a-KAN-thos in-ER-mis

• Deciduous tree, 30-70 ft (9-21 m), open, spreading crown, produces light airy shade.  Stems shining, smooth, and reddish to greenish-brown, distinctive zigzag form with enlarged nodes (appear as spur shoots); no terminal winter bud, about 5 small lateral buds at a node, more or distinct, some hidden below the bark.  Leaves alternate, pinnately or bipinnately compound, 15-20 cm long, pubescent rachis, leaflets only 2.5-4 cm long.  Flowers greenish-white, fruit are brown pods, 18-20 cm x 2.5 cm.  Some cultivars are fruitless.
• Sun.  Readily transplanted.  Withstands a wide range of conditions, i.e., drought, high pH, salt.  A good desert tree, but develops best on rich, moist bottomlands, or on soil of limestone origin.
• The honeylocust pod gall midge (Dasineura gleditchiae) deforms leaves in some areas, causing loss of ornamental value i.e., death of small branches.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3    Species (Gleditsia triacanthos) native range from southwestern Ontario, Pennsylvania to Nebraska, south to Florida and Mississippi.
• Thorns are produced on the species type.  They are 3-branched, or much more, and may appear on the trunk and branches.   Most selected cultivars are thornless (i.e., inermis).
• Gleditsia: after German botanist Gottlieb Gleditsch;   triacanthos: 3-spined;  inermis: unarmed (without spines).
• Oregon State Univ. campus: in front of Kerr Administration.