# ID this tree? Tennessee, with pic **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918 "2015-11-18T21:35:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/1 "2015-11-18T21:35:47Z")
This must be related to mesquite, right? The dark, curly shapes are big bean pods. [![](http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20151118/8f05dd2ae5a75441e3355d8c9dff46de.jpg) ](http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20151118/8f05dd2ae5a75441e3355d8c9dff46de.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/2 "2015-11-18T22:02:19Z")
Nothing so exotic. A locust - I assume black. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/3 "2015-11-18T22:26:10Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Nothing so exotic. A locust - I assume black. I agree, definitely a locust of some sort, and I also assume black. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/4 "2015-11-19T00:07:58Z")
_Gleditsia triacanthos_; does it have thorns? Honey Locust. Outstanding firewood, among the hottest. Heavy, dense wood suitable for fenceposts. Great workout for chainsaws - may see sparks. Sort of ratty looking, poor shade. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/5 "2015-11-19T00:33:35Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > _Gleditsia triacanthos_; does it have thorns? > > Honey Locust. Outstanding firewood, among the hottest. Heavy, dense wood suitable for fenceposts. Great workout for chainsaws - may see sparks. Sort of ratty looking, poor shade. Honey locust would be my other guess, but I _think_ the leave formations/branches look more like black locust. Anyhow, honey locust here in Chicago is the second most popular tree next to maples, and just above ash, so I can pretty much definitely say it’s some type of locust. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/6 "2015-11-19T01:37:08Z")
I vote honey locust too. They have smaller, more numerous leaves than the black locust. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/7 "2015-11-19T01:46:52Z")
Another possibility is Kentucky Coffee-Bean Tree (Gymnocladus dioica). ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/8 "2015-11-19T01:51:54Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Another possibility is Kentucky Coffee-Bean Tree (Gymnocladus dioica). In Tennessee? Say it ain’t so. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/9 "2015-11-19T02:02:29Z")
If it’s a Kentucky coffee tree, it will often be growing as part of a sort of grove of similar-looking trees. If it’s black locust, it will have thorns only on the youngest branches. The thorns are triangular, and grow in pairs. Black locust is very common in my area. I believe honey locust has longer thorns, but I’m less familiar with those. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/10 "2015-11-19T02:17:18Z")
Honey locust seems to have [bipinnate](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3524/3803670414_c77cd63af9.jpg) leaves vs black locust (examples of both shown at link.) Hard to tell from that photo, but it _seems_ to me to look pinnate, but I really have a hard time telling. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/11 "2015-11-19T04:24:42Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Another possibility is Kentucky Coffee-Bean Tree (Gymnocladus dioica). Definitely not a Kentucky Coffee-tree. That has [doubly-pinnate leaves](http://potemkin.haywood.edu/hor/PLANT%20MATERIALS%20I/kentucky-coffeetree_leaf.gif) with rounder leaflets and[shorter, wider, untwisted pods.](http://www.fillmoreswcd.org/images/08-CVRWebsite-Seed.JPG) The tree in the photo appears to me to have pinnate leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/12 "2015-11-19T04:37:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Honey locust seems to have [bipinnate](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3524/3803670414_c77cd63af9.jpg) leaves vs black locust (examples of both shown at link.) Hard to tell from that photo, but it _seems_ to me to look pinnate, but I really have a hard time telling. Honey locust can actually have either bipinnate leaves, on younger trees, or pinnate ones on older trees. ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-tree-tennessee-with-pic/737918/13 "2015-11-19T05:01:00Z")
I would say likely[\* Robinia pseudoacacia\*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinia_pseudoacacia), aka Bla_c_k Locust. Were there thorns upon limbs and/or trunk, and single-spiked, often in opposing pairs along branches? If so, _definitely_ the above. [Honey locust thorns](https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+locust+thorns&safe=off&biw=819&bih=530&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCJzt3b7Sm8kCFcTwJgod-3gPCw) are multi-spiked and larger in ‘volume’ covered. There are lots of _R p-acacia_ here in Central OK and tend to grow in groves and also used when soil has been disturbed to start erosion-control growth, and I have grown many from seed for various reasons. However, there is/are thornless honey locust varieties, I think. I have seen \*R p-acacia \*with more-twisted than average as pictured seed pods (usually less twisty though it varies a lot), but the honey locust does tend to have more twisty pods on average, IME. I _think_ I can see some smallishthorn protrusions on branches when zooming-in image, so can’t say for sure. Very pretty when in flower, fwiw. But otherwise considered a ‘pest’ tree for all the thorns that are dropped from dead wood. Definitely NOT a KY coffee-bean tree (which thrives here in OK, too) as those seed pods are not twisted, but shorter and stouter and more ‘pouch-like’ and thicker/leathery with somewhat large beans inside - easy to grow, too, IME. No thorns!