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Gleditsia macracantha Desf.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Gleditsia macracantha' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/gleditsia/gleditsia-macracantha/). Accessed 2025-03-17.

Family

  • Fabaceae

Genus

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
imparipinnate
Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)
simple
(of a leaf) Unlobed or undivided.
terete
Like a slender tapering cylinder.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Gleditsia macracantha' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/gleditsia/gleditsia-macracantha/). Accessed 2025-03-17.

A deciduous tree 50 to 60 ft high, the trunk armed with great, branched, terete, very stiff spines; shoots glabrous, ribbed, more or less warted. Leaves simply pinnate; leaflets six to twelve, ovate oblong sometimes inclined to obovate, 1 to 31⁄2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 11⁄2 in. wide, shallowly toothed, glabrous except on the main and individual very short stalks. Flowers in downy, stalked, simple, slender racemes 3 to 6 in. long. Pods 6 to 13 in. long, about 11⁄2 in. wide, blackish and long-persistent.

G. macracantha was described in 1800 from a tree growing in the garden of the Paris Museum. It was probably raised from seeds collected in Central China and is usually considered to be a native of that region.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The example at Kew, pl. 1946, measures 23 × 11⁄4 ft at 4 ft (1978).

G ferox Desf

This species, like the above, was described by Desfontaines from a tree at Paris probably raised from Chinese seeds. His description is scanty and it seems probable that the tree died without ever producing flower or fruit. Schneider’s amplified description (Handbuch, Vol. 2, p. 10) was made from a tree grown under the name G. ferox in the Simon-Louis nurseries early this century. According to Henry, many of the trees cultivated under this name are G. caspica.

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