Thornless Honeylocust
Gleditsia triacanthos inermis
A fast, fine-textured native shade tree whose open crown casts light, dappled shade, and its tiny leaflets turn yellow in fall. It takes heat, drought, salt, flooding and city soil, and it's thornless. It's so widely planted that the Morton Arboretum suggests weighing alternatives for diversity.
- Mature size
- 40 × 30 ft
- 12 × 9 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to moist
- Fall color
- Oct
Thornless Honeylocust at its mature size
A mature Thornless Honeylocust grows 35 to 45 feet tall and 25 to 35 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Purdue Arboretum.
Through the year
What Thornless Honeylocust looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Apr
Bare: wide open spreading branches, gray-brown bark; leafs out late.
In leaf · May–Sep
Fine lacy bright green compound leaves, airy.
Fall · Oct
Clear bright yellow fine leaflets, quick to drop.
Growing Thornless Honeylocust
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Specimen, drought tolerant, deer resistant, fall color, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America and Central North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Thornless Honeylocust, that’s about 30 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Thornless Honeylocust in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.