Arizona Naturalists >>> Sycamore Gallery Flora >>> Fabaceae >>> Robinia neomexicana

New Mexico Locust

Robinia neomexicana

photo © by Mike Plagens

Photographed by Mike Plagens along Sycamore Creek in the Pine Mountain Wilderness, Yavapai Co., Arizona, USA. 07 June 2009.

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FLOWERS: Large clusters of pea-flowers in multiple shades of pink blooming mostly May and June.

LEAVES: Pinnately compound leaves are alternate on the stems. Each leaf has 9 to 21+ rather thick leaflets and the leaves are deciduous after frost.

TREE: Usually a large shrub or occasionally a small tree reaching several meters in height. A champion New Mexico Locust in the Coconino National Forest is 27 meters tall!

RANGE: In Arizona's sycamore woods this plant tends to occur outside the main channel on the flanks of the canyon walls. It ranges from California to Texas and is also found on hillsides in ponderosa woodlands.

FRUIT: A thick bean pod with several bean-seeds.

ARMED. Stout and sharp thorns on twigs and smaller branches. When New Mexico Locust grows in clumps, bushwacking through them becomes a painful proposition.

Silver Spotted Skipper A butterfly, the Silver Spotted Skipper, is almost always found in association with this plant, because the caterpillar feeds on the leaves.

Fabaceae -- Bean Family

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Arizona Naturalist
Sycamore Canyons
The Flora of Arizona's Sycamore Canyons


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Copyright Michael J. Plagens, 1999-2010