Identify Invasive Trees - Black Locust

[@willaimmaxwell5069]

Dear GENEVA: Thankyou for this input here! This my 80th year on the planet. One take away from your talk I have is is that tho we humans tend to think of the word "invasive" as meaning something negatively invading from another country or other continents. Truly, ecosystems, as it were, are pre-human natural territorial spaces unto and within themselves shaped by time, gravity, topography, water and the wind. - very much unlike counties, countries, boundries that we have drawn.. Good topic, I say, but a hard one! Ecosystems exist long before and irrespective all the lines we humans have drawn.

[@geriannroth449]

Are the flowers fragrant? Can it grow in the Tropics?

[@subwaveart5579]

Bless you, thank you for educating the public.

[@spartaeus]

Black locust posts are suppose to last decades. Wish I had some growing around here.

[@hillbilly4christ638]

Look for hedge apple or Osage orange. Osage is better than black locust.

[@midwestplantgeeks8643]

This species is very aggressive in open fields but relatively well behaved in woodlands where it has to compete. However grows faster than other "natives". In certain areas it should be eliminated other areas always have more pressing woodies to address. Unless a prairie or doing full comprehensive invasive removal, which is rare this species is not as worrisome as many others.

[@consu.merizm]

I live in England and a Robinia Pseudoacacia has been removed from the street in front of my property. 2 years ago... the suckers from the root system are growing all over my property and all the neighbouring properties. It's a real nightmare to deal with.

[@Enword_Jim]

Had a massive Black Locust at my house, one of the three stems rotted and fell over. I cut the remaining two down. The amount of suckers growing along the root system now is insane.

[@gabrielbalbec883]

@@Enword_Jim Well, this only reassures me as to the ability of nature to get round human beings trying to annihilate it.

[@eastindiaV]

How can something be invasive in its native habitat

[@midwestinvasiveplantnetwor7029]

Black locust is unique in being the only woody invasive species addressed by the Woody Invasives of the Great Lakes Collaborative that is native to North America. Its historic native range was small compared to its current distribution and was constrained to the Appalachian Mountains and Ozark Plateau (Stone 2009, Kartesz 2014). It is not native to any part of the Great Lakes Basin. It is considered invasive largely due to its fast growth rate and colony forming habit which allow it to out-compete native species and form single-species stands in preferred habitats. woodyinvasives.org/woody-invasive-species/black-locust/

[@lewisrobinson3380]

@@midwestinvasiveplantnetwor7029 I'm very curious about this, even if we take this as true that the Black Locust wasn't native to the Great Lakes region at all, wouldn't it fulfill the exact same ecological niche as Honey Locust? Honey Locust has most of the same properties including the spreading suckers, grows bigger shading out competing plants such as Black Locust which is rather shade intolerant. Silver Maples and Red Maples that are native to the areas but Silver Maples grow far faster and Red Maples get significantly taller thus both should out compete Black Locust in a given area in the long term. As for monoculture stands of Black Locust that's probably just a very short sighted picture of it for the above reasons eventually native Maples would take hold and shade out those Black Locusts, and even then this is also probably more of an issue of the lack of large herbivores consistently traveling through the area. The Black locust isn't exactly a foreign invasive, moving it ~200 miles outside of it's native range should lead to the Black Locust being outcompeted by natives otherwise birds would have dispersed Black locusts seeds in that area long before and we would know it as native to that region already OR the black locust was already spreading slowly and steadily increasing it's range even without considering human intervention. Basically it would have become native to these same regions eventually due to proximity if it really is/was out-competing "natives" all on its own.

[@75shadystorm]

I'm pretty sure I just found one sprout up in my garden in Wisconsin. What should I do with it?

[@midwestinvasiveplantnetwor7029]

Seedlings can usually be removed manually, though it's good to make sure it's not a sucker from a nearby mature tree. If it has reached the stage of being a small tree, with a trunk diameter of less than 6", a basal bark herbicide application is likely the most effective approach. If you need more information I recommend visiting woodyinvasives.org/woody-invasive-species/black-locust/

[@Derekmartin20]

Black Locust have been used in my family for fence posts for a hundred years or more.

[@elizabethsmith6313]

"Governor Milliken" gave Black Locust seed plugs to school kids all across the state in 1970's. Maybe in '72. Of about 30 kids at the classes at my school who got one, only mine made it to become a tree. It lived for about 30 years before a storm killed it. The tree was growing on a 2 acre property and I (sadly) have no children from it. Now they're an invasive. 🤷‍♀️

[@stevenroper3577]

A nitrogen fixer that takes advantage of nitrogen poor soils - sounds like a problem (solved) to me!

[@midwestinvasiveplantnetwor7029]

The issue is that in the Great Lakes region, these trees alter nutrient cycling within the plant community to the detriment of native species that are adapted to low nitrogen conditions. The result can be monocultures and a reduction in biodiversity.

[@lovegodfirst654]

Why isnt this tree harnessed to deal with rainforest loss? Its wonderful to start forests, then dies out when the forest gets going. How come no one really talks about the greatest uses of this tree. The lumber is highly coveted. The flowers are highly coveted. It can start forests. The wood glows in black light. It just needs planted in the right conditions and for the right reasons.

[@DEagle1234]

Thank you!

[@dalegable3874]

Very informative

[@gabemasulli34]

I have a very large one

[@midwestinvasiveplantnetwor7029]

If you need guidance on removing it, you can find information at MIPN's Control Database, www.mipn.org/control/

[@willaimmaxwell5069]

We are parsing and consuming the planet .

[@willaimmaxwell5069]

Can be seen from space