Click on the images help you identify a honey locust.
Form
Medium-sized tree, 30 to 50 feet tall, occasionally taller under very favorable conditions, with a trunk diameter up to 16 inches. Slender, spreading, somewhat drooping branches form a broad, open, rather flat-topped crown resembling a great green plume. The trunk is often divided near the ground.
Bark
Dark gray or brown on older trees, divided into thin, tight scales. Strong, brown, straight, sharp, shiny thorns appear on one-year-old wood and persist for many years.
Leaf
Leaves are alternate on the stem, 6 to 8 inches long, doubly compound (featherlike) with 18 to 28 small, egg-shaped leaflets. Leaflets have finely toothed margins, dark green and lustrous above, dull yellow-green below, and turn yellow in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Fruit is a pod 10 to 18 inches long, flat, dark brown or black when ripe, containing seeds separated by yellowish-white pulp. Pods often twist as seeds ripen and are eaten by many animals.
Range
Occurs in scattered stands or as individual trees, especially in southern Minnesota along the Root River Valley and Mississippi bottomlands. Found in forested areas but more common in disturbed or barren sites beside roads and fields. Shade-intolerant and fast-growing.
Wood uses
Wood is reddish-brown, coarse-grained, hard, strong, and not durable in contact with the ground. Used for fence posts, cross ties, and fuel. Also planted for windbreaks and hedges in southern Minnesota. Not hardy but sprouts readily from the root.