yellow wood w/ thorns. ID please

I found what I was assuming was yellow poplar because of the the large growth rings and color of the wood. The small branches had thorns on them. After finally looking around at the characteristics of the tulip tree I see no mention of thorns. So what did I find? The tree was fairly large (50 to 70'?) and there were 3 all blown over in the same area.

Sounds like honey locust.

Could be honey locust, black locust, or osage orange (hedge). Either way, good firewood.

Small thorns (1" or smaller) distributed like on a rose bush, deeply furrowed bark = black locust.

Large thorns (much longer than 1") found in clumps, thinner smoother bark = honey locust.

Osage orange not usually found on east coast.

I thought both Locusts mainly grew thorns on the trunk?
Do they drop off the trunk when the tree is mature, but remain on the branches?

Note that there are thorned and thornless varieties. Will you sometimes see thorns on the so called "thornless" variety? Yes.

Regarding black locusts (with which I have the most experience), they will have thorns on young saplings and new growth but not on mature trunks.

Young black locust saplings:

Thanks for that info.

I didn't think locust because the growth rings were huge and the wood was relatively light. Leaving me to think that it was not a very good burner. Now you're going to make me see if I can find a split in the pile to take a picture of. :lol:

It definitely was not osange and the thorns were not clumped and were short at 1" or less. That would leave it to be black locust? I always assumed by the name the wood would be a darker color.

I just did a search for pics and by memory of the appearance it think it is black locust.

Black Locust is one of the faster growing trees in the east. I think Honey Locust is relatively fast growing also. That means even though the wood should be dense, the annual growth rings can be far apart.

Black Locust is usually yellowish-sometimes gold,Honey Locust is cherry-red,reddish pink or a bit darker similar to Red Oak.

I went scrounging w/ my father in law today and he showed me his secret garden so to say. Must have been about 12 cords of giant oaks down from a major storm 2 years back. The majority of the trunks are long and straight and about 2' across. woohoo. On the way to the spot we got a black locust. I was pretty happy to be able to ID it for us on the spot. I must say though, the one we got today was much more dense then the ones I found a few weeks ago.
Thanks again for the help fellow wood folks.
Mike