permaculture

[dwoodard@becon.org]

Outside of toxicity, here in the Niagara peninsula near the northern limit
of commercial peach growing, on sandy soil black locust is very invasive,
spreading aggressively by seed and growing quickly.

Some merits: it's good for fence posts and it's a good honey plant though
I hear not every season. There is a cultiver "semperflorens" which was
selected in Europe and flowers over six weeks which is supposed to be good
for nectar.

Black locust seeds are toxic. There are lots of them.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

********************************************

> I have read some positive and negative stuff about black locust.
>
> > I know that the bark and wood of black locust is toxic, but I suppose
that
> that would
> almost never be a problem with grazing animals.  I would guess that even
> goats would not
> care for the taste.  In fact, maybe I won't have to cage a black locust
> seedling?
> Anybody know about toxicity issues in the leaves and the pods?