honey locust

mommydrst

My honey locust is thornless but it has no pods, no flowers and throws of billions of little green things that look like spiders. IT IS A MESS.
Is this a honey locust or some other sort? Is there any way to stop this tree from making a blanket of green "things" all over everything? It is getting real old cleaning up the yard and everything in it every day. Is it sick? Does it need sprayed? This is really a horrible tree. Cutting it down is NOT an option.

dov

Could you post some pictures please so we can see what is going on. Please show leaves, bark and the 'green things' you described.

mommydrst

Could you please email me and I will email you the pictures? My system isn't compatable with this site and the pictures won't send.
Thanks mommydrst1@gmail.com

sueann

Mommy dearest, lol! I read that book! very scary woman!! some old movie star she was. You have to resize your pics to post, I use this one, it's easy.

ResizR - Easy online image resize

I googled your tree, it's very pretty.

dov

Probably not the best to post your email address on a public forum. I'd advise editing your post to remove it. Here is a disposable address. Send me the pics and I'll post them for you.

mommydrst1.dov@xoxy.net

This email address will only accept 5 emails before it stops saving to the server.

mommydrst

That is a disposable address.

mommydrst

dov

Thanks for the photos. Could we get a closeup of some leaves please also showing how they join onto the stem please?

mommydrst

mommydrst

Thanks for the tip.
Mommy Dearest was not very nice.
My tree is a pain, but I would never give it up. I just want it to be less of a mess. It takes up two to three hours a day to clean up after it.
Did you watch the Mommy Dearest movie? Whew that woman would wear me out.

mommydrst

With the photo of the leaves, could you tell me what to do with this devilish tree?

dov

Jut out of interest, how long have you owned this tree? Are these 'green things' a recent phenomenon? Also does it have a pair of thorns at the base of the leaves? Your photo didn't actually show the whole leaf.

mommydrst

I've lived here only two years. I heard that this tree has always done this. There are no thorns anywhere.
Today, since the rains, I will spend about eight hours cleaning up this mess.
There has to be a way to slow this down a little or something. Help.

dov

These 'green things' are spring related I think?

mommydrst

YES they are. I would say the green things number in the millions.

dov

The 'Honey Locust' that you know of with those magnificent sprays of flowers is Robinia Pseudoacacia, but the 'Honey Locust' which you have is a thornless and podless variety of Gleditsia triacanthos. The 'green things' you hate so much are the (most likely male) flowers. If you look up into the tree, you will find them on small catkins.

Common names can be so misleading sometimes...

sueann

Uh huh Dov! I was thinking that's not a honey locust tree but I didn't know there was another type. You see I have a lot to learn.

I didn't see the movie Mommydrst, but I read a book called that ages ago. She was an absolute cow to those kids. Horrid rich old bat.

I didn't know they made a movie about it.

ShadeTreeFan

There is nothing you can really do about this, I have 3 Sunburst (thornless) Honey locusts. This is just part of the spring time with these types of trees. The 3 I have are much smaller then yours so It's not as big a deal for me (yet) but that is part of owning these trees. These trees do not re-produce these all year long they are just a spring time pain. Sorry for the mess but I personally think these trees are beautiful and I would never get rid of mine. I planted them on purpose.

mommydrst

Thank you for your response. You have answered my questions better than anyone. I love/hate this tree and I see now that I may as well love it, bad and all.