Tree Talk: Black Locust

This Tree Talk on black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), guest features thousands of screaming annual cicadas! Which are not at all related to insect locusts. And funny enough, black locust is not very closely related to the tree it was misidentified to be by English colonists at Jamestown over 400 years ago, the locust or carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). Names aside, black locust has many distinctive traits that make it hard to misidentify. Though the tree is "weedy" it is a valuable member of our eastern forests. It is native to the Appalachian region but has naturalized around eastern North America and elsewhere because it is very adaptable and frequently planted for its floral, conservation, and wood use benefits. Black locust has superlative wood strength and durability, and is extremely fast-growing.
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Forests for the Bay has been funded by the US Forest Service for many years, and has allowed us to educate countless people on trees and their myriad benefits. Tree Talk is an extemporaneous lesson by Ryan Davis, recorded opportunistically by his wife Allyson while out and about in the landscapes they love. He sometimes gets things wrong because he's just speaking from memory, and the pop-ups and fact checks come from two sources: the US Forest Service Southern Research Station's accounts of the species at hand, and the 5th edition of North American Trees by Dr. Richard Preston Jr. and Dr. Richard Braham (Ryan's college dendrology professor) of North Carolina State University. This episode and many also feature trivia and natural history information from the magnificent book "A Natural History of North American Trees" by Douglas Culross Peatie.
Recorded on 8/10/24 in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, by the fragrant Allyson Davis.