Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Common forest trees of North Carolina

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-9725.jpg
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  • FOREST TREES BLACK LOCUST (YeUow Locust) (Robinia pseudacacia L.) THE black locust occurs throughout the entire State and in all soils and conditions of moisture except in swamps. It is found as a forest tree only in the mountains, where it attains a height of 80 to 100 feet and a diameter of 30 inches. Throughout the other sections of the State it occurs generally in thickets on clay banks or waste places, or singly along fence rows. The twigs and branchlets are armed with straight o r slightly curved sharp, strong spines, sometimes as much as 1 inch in length wThich remain attached to the outer bark for many years. The bark is dark brown and divides into strips as the tree grows older. The leaves are pinnate, or feather-like, from 6 to 10 inches in length, consisting of from 7 to 19 oblong thin leaflets. The flowers are fragrant, white or cream-colored, and appear i n early spring in graceful pendant racemes. The fruit is a pod from 3 to 5 inches long containing 4 to 8 small hard seeds which ripen late in the fall. The pod splits open during the winter, discharging the seeds. Some seeds usually remain attached to each half of the pod, and this acts as a wing upon which the seeds are borne to considerable distances before the strong spring winds. The wood is yellow in color, coarse-grained, very heavy, very hard, strong, and very durable in contact with the soil. It is used extensively for fence posts, poles, tree nails, insulator pins and occasionally for lumber and fuel. BLACK LOCUST Leaf, one-third nntural size. Twig, two-thirds natural size. 63
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).