Gleditsia sinensis Lam.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Gleditsia sinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/gleditsia/gleditsia-sinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

Synonyms

  • Gleditsia horrida Willd.

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
lanceolate
Lance-shaped; broadest in middle tapering to point.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
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.)
rachis
Central axis of an inflorescence cone or pinnate leaf.
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 sinensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/gleditsia/gleditsia-sinensis/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

A deciduous tree up to 40 or 45 ft in the wild, armed with often branched, terete spines several inches long; young shoots glabrous or soon becoming so. Leaves pinnate, 5 to 8 in. long, composed of eight to fourteen (sometimes more) leaflets, which are ovate or ovate-lanceolate, blunt or pointed, obliquely tapered at the base, margins slightly wavy, 114 to 3 in. long, 58 to 118 in. wide, downy on the midrib above, soon glabrous elsewhere, net-veined beneath, stalks and rachis downy. Flowers greenish white, in pendulous downy racemes 212 to 312 in. long, each flower 14 in. wide on a downy stalk about 18 in. long. Pods 5 to 10 in. long, 34 to 114 in. wide, scarcely curved, dark purplish brown, flat.

Native of China; described and named by Lamarck in 1786 from a tree growing at Versailles. This honey-locust, according to Henry, occurs wild on the mountains near Peking, but there are plants at Kew raised from Wilson’s seeds collected in 1908 in Szechwan (W.1214) and distributed under this name. It would seem, therefore, if this identification be correct, to have a wide distribution in China. The old trees in France and Italy came from eastern China. The flowers of this species have no beauty.

To the above it should be added that the tree at Kew, received from the Arnold Arboretum in 1909 under number Wilson 1214 (see above), certainly seems to belong to G. sinensis, judging from a recent examination of its foliage. A tree in the University Botanic Garden, Cambridge, measuring 42 × 212 ft (1968), is certainly authentic.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The only noteworthy specimen is: Nymans, Sussex, 56 × 512 ft + 334 ft (1983).