this is a horrible little tree that give my husband fits everytime he shreds our pasture in east texas. Can you tell me what it is? here is a pic of the leaves. the trunk has the nastiest thorns.
ID, pls
I can't tell exactly from your photo but from description, I'd say honey locust. Has caused me to almost fall off the tractor avoiding the thorned branches . Also caused many a flat tire on the tractor. The tree reproduces by seed and underground roots. It has pretty fluffy blooms in spring. The blooms are the only good think I will say about it!
hubby used to shred them but after fixing 2-3 flats on his tractor, he's decided he'd better stay away from them, like the rest of the world.
yes, that's it. honey locust. nasty tree, as far as I'm concerned. thanks, podster.
Hmm..it looks real similar to our local mesquite trees.... :)
I second the id of mesquite.
Patsy
that's the whole thing. We didn't know whether it was some type of mesquite or some type of locust. The leaves are shaped like those on mimosa trees. when I googled on his assessment, the pics looked like what i've seen.
don't go by my pic, i know it is truly bad.
The Honey Locust leaf looks unique to me. Those thorns do look angry! http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/16786/
The Mesquite leaf is different still. http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/85004/
Can you get a close up shot of the culprit?
It's the Texas native Hercules tree is it not?
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/natives/zanthoxylumclava-herculis.htm
Click on the view's of the wood. It's a very "hard" hardwood tree like Tupelo wood.
Debbie
Sheila thanks for the two pics. What we have is definitely the honey locust. The pasture was abandoned/neglected for 20 years, it has been quite a task for the last 5 years to get rid of the stuff, but we're making progress little be little.
Deb, the Hercules trunk is the meanest, scariest thang I've ever seen!
thanks everybody for the help
We have lots of the "toothache tree" here. I have tried tasting the peeled bark and it does indeed have a numbing effect. Many old timers used it for exactly that. We have it growing profusely in this area. The thorns are a bit angry but nothing in comparison the the locust... (((( shudder ))))