Thornless honey locust

Also known as:

Gleditsia triacanthos v. inermis

Soil: all types, but does best in freedraining soil

Climate: cold to subtropical, frost-tender when young, but very hardy and droughttolerant once established

Feed value: high protein foliage when coppiced, each tree produces 20-75kg of high protein (10-24%) pods once mature (8+ years) in late summer-autumn.

Leaves of the thornless honey locust turn from green to stunning yellow in autumn.

The flowers are a good source of nectar for bees. The wood is excellent firewood, and can be used as fencing posts. It also produces large, edible seed pods.

It will grow up to 20m if unpruned, but it can be coppiced, regrowing vigorously. Coppiced foliage is higher in protein than non-coppiced, and is a good ‘chop and drop’ feed for livestock during a dry summer.

It doesn’t have the nitrogen-fixing nodes on its roots found on other legumes, but research shows it does fix nitrogen. Nb: this tree looks similar to the more invasive Robinia pseudoacacia.