North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Hector Black" <hblack1925@fastmail.fm>]

Hi Donna,
    I'm not sure what would happen if you had a stand of thornless 
honeylocust with no possible contamination from wild trees that are thorny. 
As you know we have thorny wild trees in our woods and bees travel far, so 
one year our seedling were 25% thornless, 25% very thorny, and 50 % 
moderately thorny.  Classic case if my memory serves about heredity.
   Another curious thing is that we have noticed that honey locust (like 
some other trees) can produce male flowers occasionaly on female trees and 
v.v.  This happened on the row of honey locust from up north (Michigan I 
think) that are also much more upright growing with fewer pods.
   I sprouted some carob in the greenhouse hoping to cross them with honey 
locust and get some hardy trees with better tasting pods, but never made it 
that far.  It would be an interesting experiment as I believe they are 
closely enough related.    Hector Black zone 6 middle TN
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Honey Locust


> They don't come true to seeds...      About 25% of seedlings are thorny
>
>
> Hector,
>    I didn't know this!  We've had two seedlings come up that must be from
> from your place, both are thornless.  There are NO honey locusts in the
> vicinity except for these two trees.  I think the seeds must have laid
> dormant for several years before they sprouted.  We whacked one tree last
> year because it was in the way, and anyway I could see there were suckers
> here and there that I could move or leave if I wanted to.  I don't know 
> what
> sex the trees are, one bloomed last year but I didn't look hard enough.
> Anyway, there wasn't a pollinator if it was female.
>    I've wondered if honey locusts could be crossed with carob or tamarind,
> have scrounged around for info on whether they would be closely enough
> related.  They aren't in the same genus, that much I remember.  Wonder if
> there is something with fleshier or more palatable pods in the same or a
> closely related genus?   There is a rather unpleasant flavor in honey 
> locust
> pods, not terrible, but not the best.  Of course I say the same about kiwi
> fruit...     Donna
>
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