Always find this interesting

[ryanm527]

I cut and split a lot of honey locust and occasionally I'll come across a thorn embedded inside the tree. Always find it kind of interesting how that happens. Not sure if it's caused when two trunks grow together and trap a spine inside or if a spine just never falls off and eventually gets surrounded by the outward growth of the trunk or what exactly causes this.

 

[firecracker_77]

what the heck?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Wood is so badass it has thorns on the INSIDE.

It's like the Chuck Norris of woods.

 

[basswidow]

When I was a kid, I used to bush hog a field that had a grove of thorny locust trees. I'd go under the branches with the tactor and duck, but they'd always get me. Nasty thorns.

 

[jcjohnston]

you know when Chuck Norris does push ups he is actually pushing the world down

 

[ryanm527]

Wood is so badass it has thorns on the INSIDE.

It's like the Chuck Norris of woods.

HA yea and I came across one the other day that probably had as much mass in thorns as in wood (slight exaggeration maybe). One thorn I estimated to be about 18" long. Would have taken a photo if I would have had something to compare it to.

 

[Wood Duck]

I always wonder why a tree would evolve thorns that long - what giant beast are they meant to repel? Other thorny plants have much, much smaller thorns. I read somewhere that the thorns on Honey Locust may have evolved to repel the giant plant eaters of the pleistocene like mammoths and giant ground sloths. It works perfectly!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No, that is all wrong. The thorns are to keep the wood cutters away.

 

[Thistle]

That's pretty common in most older Honey Locust I've cut & split,being 'ingrown' like that.

Those thorns are brutal,I've seen single thorns over 3" long & clusters as big as a basketball on the main trunk of larger trees.Will ruin any tire if you're not careful.I had one go through the side of boot once,not any fun there.

 

[maxed_out]

I'd bet the Indians knew what to do with them. any ideas?

 

[NH_Wood]

My Plant Taxonomy professor used to say 'you ain't a man till you've climbed a honey locust naked' - then joke that you'd not be a man long if you tried! Cheers!

 

[lukem]

I'd bet the Indians knew what to do with them. any ideas?

My dad used to put them in the landscape beds to keep the dogs and coons from tearing them up. Worked pretty good.