Golden Chain Tree

 

Laburnum anagyroides

Locusts

The honey locusts are leafing out.

This leaf can't decide if it wants to be pinnately or bipinnately compound.

The flowers buds are growing on the honey locusts...

while the black locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia) have already bloomed.

The flowers look like pea flowers (locusts are in the same family as the pea) and smell just as delicately sweet.

All the black locusts I've seen are still young, which means about another 100 years of sweet pink blossoms. Thanks, Art!

Kentucky Coffeetree

Gymnocladus dioicus has huge bipinnately compound leaves that can measure up to 40 inches long. Of course now, there's not a leaf in sight. Gymnocladus means "naked branch." With few twigs and barely visible buds, the tree looks almost dead in winter.

The Kentucky coffeetree has another unmistakable feature: the seed pods. They are stout and hard to break open.

Inside, surrounded by a sticky pulp, there are round seeds that pioneers purportedly roasted and used as a substitute for coffee. (I wouldn't try this at home. Raw seeds are toxic.) The species is dioecious, so pods can only be found on female trees.

The bark is furrowed and rough, and can break into scales resembling those of an alligator's back.

Silk Tree

I made a post about this silk tree when it was in bloom. Now, instead of flowers, the tree is covered with seed pods like this one, which was about about six inches long.

The pods are flat with little bulges where the seeds are. They will turn brown and stay on the tree through winter.

Honey Locust

Gleditsia triacanthos is one of 15,000 species in the pea family (Leguminosae). This family, also called the legume family, is characterized by pod-like fruits. Honey locust seed pods can be up to 18 inches long. The tree's common name refers not to the sap, but to the sweet pulp of the seed pod, which Native Americans used in food, drink, and medicine.

The leaves are pinnately or bipinnately compound.

The bark is vertically fissured...

and has clusters of branched spines, so it's not the best climbing tree. Early settlers used these thorns as sewing needles and nails.

In spring, the honey locust is covered with strongly scented white flowers.

Some light can come through the canopy, so there's more grass around the trunk than you find with trees that create unadulterated shade, such as beeches.

Silk Tree

Before I could see this tree, I knew something was in bloom because the air smelled so sweet. This silk tree is near Chapel Avenue.