Thread: Black Locust for long bows

Greetings @annzer,
Glad to see someone else growing Robinia Psuedoacacia AKA Black Locust. Shipmast Locust or Thorny Acascia. My father collected some seedings for me almost 30 years ago and I palnted them here. They are nowhere as good as yours though. I have read of the timber being used for rifle stocks as well as bows.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings @annzer,
Glad to see someone else growing Robinia Psuedoacacia AKA Black Locust. Shipmast Locust or Thorny Acascia. My father collected some seedings for me almost 30 years ago and I palnted them here. They are nowhere as good as yours though. I have read of the timber being used for rifle stocks as well as bows.
Regards Grandpamac.

There has been a lot of trial work done on Robinia in NZ, and the results have indicated that it produces extremely well here, but only on fertile, sheltered sites that would also grow great horticultural crops. Most people, given the choice between making an income from kiwifruit or from Robinia, would probably bypass Robinia. @annzer has his in a great spot. I have tried to grow them here on the coastal hills only 25kms or so from annzer in a straight line, but my trees get blasted by wind, damaged by possums and deer, and generally are slow and fussy and totally outclassed by the durable eucs which have similar timber properties. I wish the breeding program that went into poplars and willows had covered Robinia as well, and developed a wind-tolerant, thornless clone. They are trees with some great attributes; N-fixing, amazing bee fodder, attractive and durable.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

There has been a lot of trial work done on Robinia in NZ, and the results have indicated that it produces extremely well here, but only on fertile, sheltered sites that would also grow great horticultural crops. Most people, given the choice between making an income from kiwifruit or from Robinia, would probably bypass Robinia. @annzer has his in a great spot. I have tried to grow them here on the coastal hills only 25kms or so from annzer in a straight line, but my trees get blasted by wind, damaged by possums and deer, and generally are slow and fussy and totally outclassed by the durable eucs which have similar timber properties. I wish the breeding program that went into poplars and willows had covered Robinia as well, and developed a wind-tolerant, thornless clone. They are trees with some great attributes; N-fixing, amazing bee fodder, attractive and durable.

The bark is poisonous to cattle

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

The bark is poisonous to cattle

Are you sure? I've had cattle grazing around Robinia and on foliage etc for many years and never had a problem.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

Are you sure? I've had cattle grazing around Robinia and on foliage etc for many years and never had a problem.

Here is a link:https://www.bellarmine.edu/faculty/d...lacklocust.asp
The OP states Black Locust and looking at the form of the tree they look like Black Locust. A lot of tree legumes are poisonous in part or whole, just think of our own native Kowhai

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Here is a link:https://www.bellarmine.edu/faculty/d...lacklocust.asp
The OP states Black Locust and looking at the form of the tree they look like Black Locust. A lot of tree legumes are poisonous in part or whole, just think of our own native Kowhai

A lot of tree legumes are also hallucinogenic. I imported some seeds of Anadenanthera colubrina a few years back to trial it as a timber tree. The seeds were inspected by MPI on arrival in the country, and released to me. Which I was very pleased about as a bit later I discovered that the seeds can be used as a LSD substitute, and are a class A drug in NZ! It's totally nuts, you can legally import the seeds with the intention of sowing them, but if you import them for any other reason you can end up going to jail. Sadly the trees did not survive.