The Honey Locust
Description
The Honey Locust is a majestic tree which originated in the south-eastern section of the United States. The Honey Locust on average can grow from 66-100 feet within an average life span of one hundred and fifty years! The leaves of the Honey Locust tree are around 0.5 to 1.5 inches a piece and are bright green and turn yellow when fall season tends to come around. Most Honey Locust trees have very sharp thorns which average out to around three to ten centimeters. The Honey Locust tends to survive well in most areas of the United States making it a very popular tree to plant as an ornament for areas of high urban population.
(Angiosperm)
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Gleditsia
Natural Habitat: East Midwest of the United States
Leaf Pattern: Leafs are 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch long; elliptical patterns of green to yellow-green
Germination: Honey Locust typically live up to 120 years and grow very rapidly to make up for their short life.
Other Natural Species: Mimosa Webworm, spider mites, cankers, galls
Bark: Horizontally gray-brown to bronze coloring, often with sharp thorns
(Angiosperm)
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Gleditsia
Natural Habitat: East Midwest of the United States
Leaf Pattern: Leafs are 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch long; elliptical patterns of green to yellow-green
Germination: Honey Locust typically live up to 120 years and grow very rapidly to make up for their short life.
Other Natural Species: Mimosa Webworm, spider mites, cankers, galls
Bark: Horizontally gray-brown to bronze coloring, often with sharp thorns
Current Research
Ethnobotany:
The Honey Locust tree's ability to survive in almost all American climate has made the tree very popular among urban landscaping. These trees are seen along many of the sidewalks in America as ornaments to beautify sections of cities. The tree is preferred due to it's small leaves and open canopy which don't shade out other landscape plants or grass. The Honey Locust is also known as a very durable tree to be used in the timber industry. It's wood is very dense and shock resistant which makes it a popular tree to be cut down for timber.
The Honey Locust tree's ability to survive in almost all American climate has made the tree very popular among urban landscaping. These trees are seen along many of the sidewalks in America as ornaments to beautify sections of cities. The tree is preferred due to it's small leaves and open canopy which don't shade out other landscape plants or grass. The Honey Locust is also known as a very durable tree to be used in the timber industry. It's wood is very dense and shock resistant which makes it a popular tree to be cut down for timber.
creative writing
Paul Street in the city of Poopdale looks just like every other typical suburban street you can imagine in America. It has paved cement sidewalks surrounding a two way street with typical family sized houses with grass front lawns in front of them. To the average citizen here, Paul Street looks nothing different than the hundreds of other streets which make up Poopdale. That is, until one day when the mayor decided that he was going to plant two Honey Locust trees for each of Paul Street's ten blocks. The twist was that the mayor was going to pull out one cement block each from both sides in the already standing sidewalk, and replace them with one Honey Locust tree on each side. People were really confused and upset at first; why in the world would the mayor put trees in the middle of the sidewalk blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic? Despite all the fussing, the Honey Locusts were planted all along Paul Street and people were forced to continue to their lives with these trees in the middle of the sidewalk. The Honey Locust trees, in the positions in which they were in, really forced people to tightly squeeze by them to get to their destinations and problems started to arise. Skateboarders and bicyclists once accustomed to smashing down millions of miles per hour on the sidewalk, would get into all sorts of accidents due to where the Honey Locusts were placed and lots of people distracted looking at their mobile devices and not paying attention to the sidewalk would smack head on into the Honey Locust's thick brown branches. The people of Paul Street would have to change the way they lived their lives around these trees. At first people of Paul Street were outraged that they had to dodge trees every time they walked down their street but, as time went on and the people of Paul Street were forced to get close to these trees to continue their daily lives adapting their prior perspectives on the Honey Locust trees in their neighborhood. Qualities that people of Paul Street never saw before like seeing the sun breaking through the beautiful greenish yellow leaves, watching beautiful wildlife interact with trees bark, and smelling the fresh aroma of the Honey Locust everyday began to change the perspectives of the people living on Paul Street. They began to respect the unique qualities that these Honey Locust trees had and saw them as part of their community and daily life. The people of Paul street began to show bonds between what made their street unique and the people of Paul Street began to identify themselves with the Honey Locusts trees which they used to despise. The Honey Locust trees also provided more wildlife diversity to the neighborhood and helped slightly improve the air quality of this neighborhood. The planting of the Honey Locust trees, which were previously despised by residents, really changed the way that people respected trees and nature itself and helped forge better environmental equity between the people of Paul Street and the Honey Locust trees.
Maybe if all of us could find a deeper bond with the nature around us in such a time of environmental uncertainty, like the Honey Locusts in the story; we could come out with a more positive perspective on the way we see these beautiful trees and nature in general and begin looking at the sustainability of mother nature not just including the United States but, the whole world's beautiful trees and nature and attempt to better the conditions for the rest of the world's remaining beautiful trees and nature.
Maybe if all of us could find a deeper bond with the nature around us in such a time of environmental uncertainty, like the Honey Locusts in the story; we could come out with a more positive perspective on the way we see these beautiful trees and nature in general and begin looking at the sustainability of mother nature not just including the United States but, the whole world's beautiful trees and nature and attempt to better the conditions for the rest of the world's remaining beautiful trees and nature.
Biblography
- Thorns and branches photo: David Boehnlein. Jun 10, 2007. Link: http://www.permies.com/t/1664/plants/edibility-honey-locust-leaves-pods
- Yellow Honey Locust Photo: http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Shopping/thornless-common-honeylocust-tree.html
- R. Alan Shadow. "Plant Fact Sheet". USDA NRCS East Texas Plant Materials Center. Link: http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_gltr.pdf
- John Seiler, Edward Jensen, Alex Niemiera, John Peterson. "honeylocust". Virginia Tech. Link: http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=30
- Virginia Tech. "HONEYLOCUST RESEARCH NEWSLETTER No.1". LINK: http://faculty.virginia.edu/honeylocust-agroforestry/agroforestry/Honeylocust%20Research%20Newsletter%20No.1.htm
- R. Alan Shadow. "Plant Fact Sheet". USDA NRCS East Texas Plant Materials Center. Link: http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_gltr.pdf
- John Seiler, Edward Jensen, Alex Niemiera, John Peterson. "honeylocust". Virginia Tech. Link: http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=30
- Virginia Tech. "HONEYLOCUST RESEARCH NEWSLETTER No.1". LINK: http://faculty.virginia.edu/honeylocust-agroforestry/agroforestry/Honeylocust%20Research%20Newsletter%20No.1.htm