I started another post this morning -- Stewardship Among Flowers and Thorns -- but it went places I wasn't expecting and it's going to take some time to finish and may be kind of long. I decided to put that one on hold for today and just introduce one of the thorny characters in the holler for future reference:
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
[Photo by Cathie Bird]
This tree was a little difficult to get a lens around. When I tried to get a photo of the whole tree, its masses of white flowers kind of merged into blurry balloons, but I came in a little closer to get this fairly decent image of several branches. It's as awesome from a distance, though, as it is up close:
[Photo by Cathie Bird]
[Photo by Cathie Bird]
The thorns on this tree are stout, and (for this species) appear as un-branched pairs:
[Photo by Cathie Bird]
Black locust wood is strong and slow to rot in the humid, wet Tennessee climate. People of the Cherokee Nation planted and cultivated it to use for nails, bows and darts; white settlers used locust for fence posts and base logs for houses.
Black locust is a species that moves into areas that have been disturbed by human activity. This one grows near a gravel road, pretty much at the edge of the road cut.
