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Leguminosae
Common names
Honey locust (United States, Australia), driedoring, sprinkaan
boom (South Africa), acacia negra (Argentina).
Description
Adult trees have an erect trunk and spreading leafy branches,
but the young growth forms very thorny thickets. Leaves are bright green,
fernlike; pods dark brown, large, with sweet pulp and numerous hard brown
seeds. Stems of the younger plants bear very large, thick, sharp thorns
up to 12.5 cm long and 0.6 cm diameter, dark glossy brown in colour (Everist,
1969).
Characteristics
Although stock relish its foliage, the honey locust is cultivated
for its large pods (30 to 45 cm long and 2.5 to 5.0 cm broad). In the United
States, some trees bear pods containing 40 percent sugar, in other cases
sugar content is very low. The pods contain 12 to 14 percent crude protein,
and 230 kg. per tree are obtained from the fourth or fifth year. Gleditsia
is dioecious and is unreliable as a pod bearer. It is best grown on alluvial
soils, (e.g. along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, United States) under
irrigation with interrow cultivation. Seeds are scarified in hot water
to break dormancy. It can stand severe droughts.
Budding and grafting are difficult, but root cuttings can be planted.
Male trees are required for adequate pollination (Jurriaanse, 1950). In
Argentina, the variety inermis has been selected for planting (Whyte et
al., 1969) . Everist does not recommend it to be planted in Queensland,
Australia, because of its habit of forming thickets and becoming a serious
pest.
Analyses show that the dry-matter content of the leaves varies from
49.4 percent in May to 28.1 percent in April with a mean of 40.0 percent.
Crude protein content ranges from 17.3 percent in August to 14.3 percent
in February with a mean of 15.7 percent; crude fibre, from 33.4 percent
in November to 25.9 percent in May. Calcium percentage of the dry matter
ranges from 2.85 percent in January-February to 1.75 percent in October,
with a mean of 2.20 percent. Phosphorus ranges from 0.16 percent in May
to 0.06 percent in February with a mean of 0.12 percent, and chlorine has
a mean of 0.02 percent. The digestibility of the dry matter for cattle
was 68.7 percent, of the organic matter 69.8 percent, crude protein 81.4
percent and the crude fibre 59 percent (Rose-Innes and Mabey, 1964).
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