Species
+

Gleditsia triacanthos L.

Common Honey-locust, Common Honeylocust, Honey Locust, Honey shuck

Climate known 52 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The honey locust, also known as the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust, is a deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae, native to central North America where it is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys. Honey locust trees are highly adaptable to different environments, and the species has been introduced worldwide. Outside its natural range it can be an aggressive, damaging invasive species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Honey locust”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Gleditsia

Gleditsia is a genus of trees in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, native to the Americas and Asia. The Latin name commemorates Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, director of the Berlin Botanical Garden, who died in 1786.

Text from Wikipedia, “Gleditsia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa +40
Wild records
598 in range· 98 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1081mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 123 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1081 mm a year, wettest May at 123 mm, driest January at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -14.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acacia americana Stokes; Acacia inermis Steud.; Acacia laevis Steud.; Acacia triacanthos Gron.; Acacia villaregalis McVaugh and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (787 mm of 1081 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1081 mm a year, wettest May at 123 mm, driest January at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1081 mm a year at the habitat, 787 mm of it March to October. Wettest month May at 123 mm, driest January at 64 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 919 mm to 1283 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -14.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -14.9 °C, the absolute minimum -26.3 °C, about 101 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.1 °C to 3.7 °C), warmest day 30.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1081 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 431 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -26.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-26.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 13–41RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 431 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / -0–148 / 2–1613 / 8–2019 / 15–2524 / 20–2828 / 26–3231 / 28–3430 / 27–3426 / 23–3120 / 16–2513 / 9–197 / 2–14
Night °C-3 / -8–4-2 / -7–62 / -2–98 / 4–1414 / 10–1919 / 16–2221 / 18–2521 / 18–2516 / 14–2110 / 8–155 / 1–10-1 / -5–5
Rain mm64 / 31–9569 / 40–9891 / 61–11693 / 77–113123 / 99–144110 / 98–131102 / 60–12588 / 52–11388 / 73–11392 / 71–12384 / 61–11077 / 43–113
DLI15 / 13–1820 / 18–2327 / 26–2934 / 32–3637 / 37–3841 / 39–4241 / 38–4436 / 34–4030 / 27–3322 / 20–2515 / 13–1913 / 10–17
RH %58 / 56–6257 / 56–6056 / 55–5755 / 54–5757 / 56–5958 / 57–5958 / 54–6058 / 53–6057 / 55–5957 / 55–5858 / 57–5959 / 57–62

Each figure is the median across the 431 grid cells holding the 571 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1048:1759 (37.575, -92.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -26.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 431 distinct grid cells holding the 571 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1048:1759 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_-91.875, lapse-corrected -45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 312 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeWyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Canary Is., Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Saudi Arabia, China Southeast, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.052, -96.857 · in the densest population, 180 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 598 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 98 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 219 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 27 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 598 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthosGleditsia triacanthos

Photographs: (c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Gleditsia triacanthos, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Transpiration of urban forests in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Diane E. Pataki, Heather R. McCarthy, Elizaveta Litvak, Stéphanie Pincetl (2010) · Ecological Applications
Expansion of Woody Plants in Tallgrass Prairie: A Fifteen-year Study of Fire and Fire-grazing Interactions
John M. Briggs, Alan K. Knapp, Brent L. Brock (2002) · The American Midland Naturalist
Chemical composition and functional properties of Gleditsia triacanthos gum
Lorena S. Sciarini, F. Maldonado, Pablo D. Ribotta, Gabriela Pérez (2008) · Food Hydrocolloids
Ranking the suitability of common urban tree species for controlling PM2.5 pollution
Jun Yang, Yamin Chang, Pengbo Yan (2014) · Atmospheric Pollution Research
Shelf Life Extension of Ricotta Cheese Using Coatings of Galactomannans from Nonconventional Sources Incorporating Nisin against Listeria monocytogenes
Joana T. Martins, Miguel A. Cerqueira, Bartolomeu Warlene Silva de Souza, Maria do Carmo Avides (2010) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Three Sequenced Legume Genomes and Many Crop Species: Rich Opportunities for Translational Genomics
Steven B. Cannon, Gregory D. May, Scott A. Jackson (2009) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Functional Polysaccharides as Edible Coatings for Cheese
Miguel A. Cerqueira, A. M. P. Lima, Bartolomeu Warlene Silva de Souza, J. A. Teixeira (2009) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Home away from home — objective mapping of high‐risk source areas for plant introductions
David M. Richardson, Wilfried Thuiller (2007) · Diversity and Distributions
The plasma membrane strength of the root-tip cells and root phenolic compounds are correiated with Al tolerance in several common woody plants
Paul Ofei-Manu, Tadao Wagatsuma, Satoru Ishikawa, Keitaro Tawaraya (2001) · Soil Science & Plant Nutrition

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.