Black locust is a commonly used landscaping tree species

Black locust, also called false acacia, belongs to the genus Robinia in the Fabaceae family. Native to North America, it has spread throughout vast areas of North China, Northwest China, and the southern part of Northeast China. The black locust has a tall crown and bright green leaves; when it blooms, the green and white complement each other, elegant and fragrant. It can be used as a street tree or shade tree. It is a pioneer tree species for greening industrial and mining areas and for greening barren hills and wastelands. Black locust wood is hard and resistant to water and moisture. It can be used for mine props, railway sleepers, vehicles, and agricultural timber; the leaves contain crude protein and are good feed for many livestock; the flowers are an excellent nectar source plant, and black locust honey is white and transparent, deeply welcomed by consumers; the young leaves and flowers are edible and have now become a green vegetable for urban residents; the seeds are pressed for oil used as raw material for soap and paint.

It is a deciduous tree, 10-20 m tall. The bark is grayish-blackish brown, with vertical fissures; the branches have stipular spines, and the twigs are grayish brown, glabrous or with fine pubescence when young. Odd-pinnate compound leaves, alternate, with 9-19 leaflets; the petiole is 1-3 cm long, the petiolule is about 2 mm long and covered with short pubescence, and the leaflets are ovate or ovate-oblong, 2.5-5 cm long and 1.5-3 cm wide, with a broad wedge-shaped or nearly rounded base, a rounded or slightly retuse apex with a small mucro, entire margins, green on the surface and covered with fine pubescence, grayish green and short-hairy on the underside. Racemes are axillary, shorter than the leaves, and the rachis is yellowish brown and sparsely short-hairy; the pedicel is 8-13 mm long. Covered with short pubescence, the calyx is bell-shaped with irregular 5-toothed lobes and short-hairy on the surface; the corolla is white, fragrant, the standard petal nearly circular, 18 mm long, clawed at the base, slightly retuse at the apex, the wings obovate-oblong, with a slender claw at the base, rounded at the tip, 18 mm long, the keel curved inward with a long claw at the base; there are 10 stamens, in two groups of 9 and 1; the ovary is linear-oblong, covered with short white hairs, the style bends almost at a right angle, the pod is flat, linear-oblong, 3-11 cm long, brown, smooth. It contains 3-10 seeds and dehiscences into two valves. Flowering and fruiting period is May-September.

Black locust prefers light and a warm, humid climate, and grows well where the annual average temperature is 8-14°C and the annual precipitation is 500-900 mm. Black locust is not strict about soil and is highly adaptable. It most prefers deep, fertile, loose, moist silt soil, sandy loam, and loam. It is not sensitive to soil pH. It grows poorly on clay and coarse sandy soil where the subsoil is too sticky and hard and drainage is poor. Although it has a certain drought resistance, it often suffers dieback of shoot tips in severe drought seasons with long periods without rain. It is not tolerant of waterlogging. It fears wind. It grows fast and is an important fast-growing tree species in the world. The roots are shallow and the crown is dense. It bears fruit early and produces abundantly. The period of vigorous volume growth is after 15-20 years, and under better site conditions it can be maintained for more than 40 years. For afforestation, it is best to choose sandy loam with irrigation conditions, good drainage, and deep fertility for raising seedlings. Before sowing, soak the seeds in hot water first. Spring sowing is the main method, but in places with particularly severe spring drought, sowing can also be done in the rainy season. Afforestation methods vary by location: in areas with much wind in winter and spring that are relatively dry and cold, trunk-cutting afforestation can be used in autumn or early spring; in places with a relatively warm, humid climate and little wind, whole-trunk planting can be used, with spring planting being best. The main pests of black locust include: termites, leafhoppers, longhorn beetles, scale insects, small wrinkled moths, locust aphids, black locust geometer moths, black locust seed chalcids, and so on.