| Currently Accepted Name: | Gleditsia aquatica Marshall |
| Locality: | USA. South Carolina. Richland Co.: Residence at 3801 Duncan Street Sherwood Forest neighborhood of Columbia. 33º 59’ 32” N 80º 59’ 16” W |
| Description: | After 2006, removal of a nearby and overtowering pecan (ca. 7 m distant), this tree has grown considerably in height and crown coverage, presently 21.5 cm DBH, 71 cm circumference; regularly producing branched, needle-like clusters of reddish/russet thorns, these elongating/enlarging, occasional bearing leaves, and eventually forming dangerously sharp complexes, abundant up and down the trunk, the new developing thorns always reddish and pliable at first, eventually indurated, gray, dying, and for a while persisting; lower trunk otherwise pale tan/gray, studded with many thousands of raised, somewhat brown-orange eruptions (lenticels?); flowers abundantly produced, greenish-reddish-russet; legumes soon following, these ca. 2 cm long, broadly obtuse/tapered, and "wafer" shaped; seedlings now commonly produced in the yard (and eliminated), as well as alarmingly robust surficial roots, linear-elongated well away from the trunk, the tree now, all things considered, something of a pest, but the foliage useful for light shade, the spring flowers attractive and red, and the thorns make a great conversation point on a tour of our garden… with a drink. |
| Notes: | CULTIVATED. Acquired from Woodlanders Inc. (nursery in Aiken Co. SC) ca. 1995 with the presumption of its remaining a "small" tree. |