TWO PEAS

SUNBURST HONEYLOCUST TREE

BLACK LOCUST TREE

BLACK LOCUST FLOWERS

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  67 degrees F at the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with occasional light to moderate gusts.  The sky was clear but is clouding up and is very hazy. The humidity is still 95%, and the barometer is taking a dive, now at 30.07".  It looks like we may get showers again later or this evening, but clearing into the week.

   Two trees in the Pea Family, the Leguminoseae, are evident now; one, the sunburst honey locust, 

Glleditsia triacanthos inermis 'Sunburst', is noted for its golden spring leaf color; the other, Robinia pseudoacacia, is noted for its panicles of beautiful creamy,  scented flowers and its thorny and invasive nature.

   The sunburst locust is thornless (inermis), flowerless and fruitless (being a male tree) and has little to offer except one season of interest. Most honeylocust trees have wicked, three pronged thorns (triacanthos). The black locust is a terribly invasive tree that is a nasty invader of farm fields.  It is, however, quite beautiful when established, and if one can tolerate its thorns and invasiveness is nice to have around. At this season all of Wisconsin will have it in bloom on hillsides and in hedgerows.  Both trees have pinnately compound leaves, and it is thought by some that the biblical reference to the Israelites eating locusts in the desert referred actually to eating honeylocust tree seed pods, which have a thick, sweet interior.

   They are two peas, but are not in the same pod.