The rules for posting are simple!

1. Every Friday post a photo that includes one or more flowers.
2. Please only post photos you have authority to use.
3. Include a link to this blog in your post - http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/
4. Leave the link to your FloralFridayFoto post below on inlinkz.
5. Visit other blogs listed ... comment & enjoy!

When to Post:
inlinkz will be available every Thursday and will remain open until the next Wednesday.

Thursday 5 April 2018

FFF332 - ROBINIA

Robinia pseudoacacia, commonly known as the black locust, is a tree of the genus Robinia in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, but has been widely planted and naturalised elsewhere in temperate North America, Europe, Southern Africa, Australia and Asia and is considered an invasive species in some areas.

A less frequently used common name is false Acacia, which is a literal translation of the specific epithet. It was introduced into Britain in 1636. With a trunk up to 0.8 m diameter (exceptionally up to 52 m tall and 1.6 m diameter in very old trees), with thick, deeply furrowed blackish bark. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate with 9–19 oval leaflets, 2–5 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad. Each leaf usually has a pair of short spines at the base, 1–2 mm long or absent on adult crown shoots, up to 2 cm long on vigorous young plants.

The intensely fragrant (reminiscent of orange blossoms) flowers are white to lavender or purple, borne in pendulous racemes 8–20 cm long, and are edible. In France and in Italy Robinia pseudoacacia flowers are eaten as beignets after being coated in batter and fried in oil.

The fruit is a legume 5–10 cm long, containing 4–10 seeds. Although the bark and leaves are toxic, various reports suggest that the seeds and the young pods of the black locust are edible. Shelled seeds are safe to harvest from summer through fall, and are edible both raw and/or boiled. Due to the small nature of Black Locust seeds, shelling them efficiently can prove tedious and difficult.

The name locust is said to have been given to Robinia by Jesuit missionaries, who fancied that this was the tree that supported St. John in the wilderness, but it is native only to North America. The locust tree of Spain (Ceratonia siliqua or Carob Tree), which is also native to Syria and the entire Mediterranean basin, is supposed to be the true locust of the New Testament.

Join me for Floral Friday Fotos by linking your flower photos below, and please leave a comment once you have done so!
***If you take part in the meme, please show an active link back to this site on your own blog post!****
Add your own link to the Linky list below and say hello in a comment. Please visit other participants in the meme.

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful photo of this lovely tree with very fragrant flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A new plant to me, AND it's native to North America! Love trees with fragrant flowers. I'll keep an eye out for this one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Think that I've seen this beautiful flower - at least in southern Calif.:) Thanks for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Nick,
    I love Robinia, they are so beautiful!
    Have a nice weekend,
    greetings
    moni

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nick, love fragrant blossoms. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds interesting tree species! Beautiful capture on the flowers

    ReplyDelete
  7. We recently went to talk on invasive plants. They can be a big problem for farmers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. They smell beautiful!
    Thank you for hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is so lovely, i guess it is a legume. I wonder if it is a host for butterflies.

    ReplyDelete