Medium tree to 70 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown broadly rounded, often with dropping outer branches; trunk straight, rather stout, usually with large, purple­brown, 3‑parted thorns.

 Dark brown, deeply furrowed and scaly at maturity.

 Slender, angular, reddish‑brown, smooth, zigzag, with 3­parted or unbranched thorns; leaf scars alternate, more or less 3‑lobed, with 3 bundle traces.

 Rounded, nearly hidden beneath the leaf scars, dark brown, smooth, up to 1/8 inch long.

 Alternate, often doubly pinnately compound, with many leaflets; leaflets oblong to oblong‑lanceolate, rounded or slightly pointed at the tip, rounded at the slightly asymmetrical base, minutely toothed along the edges, smooth except for some hairs along the veins, up to 11/2 inches long, less than half as wide.

 Some flowers with both stamens and pistils, others with only one or the other, in elongated clusters up to 3 inches long, yellowish, small, appearing in May and June.

 Elongated legumes up to 11/2 feet long and up to 2 inches wide, flat, often twisted or curved, purple-brown, containing several seeds embedded in a thick pulp.

Habitat: Moist, wooded ravines, thickets, along roads.

Either side of sledding hill and  over most of park ;very few on river flood plane

 Honey Locust has more leaflets than any other kind of tree in Illinois. The large forked spines and the long fruits are also distinctive. 

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  Tree species facts from Robert Mohlenbrock , Forest Trees of Illinois , 1996