Honey Locust

Yikes! Ouch!

Is this where they got the idea?

We have been clearing brush behind the house, slowly digging our way to a small pond that I know is buried back here someplace. I can see the cypress trees that grow on the edges of the pond, but so far, no pond! So, anyway, while we are bushwhacking, I ran across a tree with spikes sticking out all over it! It's like someone wrapped barbed wire and razor wire all around it! I had to think and dig in my memory about what kind of tree this might be, and after a couple of guesses, I came up with Locust. A bit of Googling, and I found it,

Here's the leaves

This is lumber from a local grower

Honey Locust. Turns out this is an amazing tree! Not only is the fast growing hardwood amazingly beautiful for stunning furniture making,but the tree pods are edible, sweet like candy, and the bark is amazing medicine, for arthritis, cancer, and more! Another wonderful find on our gone wild acreage! Just a super cool tree! I hope we find more! And I intend to plant some too! :)

That's a lot of spines!

Cool links:
Locust pods- wild candy:  http://firstways.com/2011/11/01/wild-candy-in-the-honey-locust-tree/
Scientific research into Locust as medicine: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Gleditsia_triacanthos.html
Wiki has a lot to say about it-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_locust