[norson]

I now have in my possession two "sticks" picked up off the ground below a tree in our neighborhood which I need help identifying. The leaves themselves to not "branch" off the branch itself, but rather there are "clusters" or "groups" of 4-5 leaf stems. The 8-10 trees area long a bike path near us and may not be "native" to this state - Illinois - but they are doing well and are approx 20' high.

Further, they do not "weather" strong storms/winds very well, for many times their branches break off - and that's how/where I got these two latest sticks.

I will now do my best to provide several pics and hope one of you experts here can help me.

Thank you

-neb

 

[gdenby]

Looks to me like black locust. Or maybe a special variety called starburst locust, which is used for landscaping. Any thorns on the trunk? If so, sunburst or honey locust. The mature wood is supposed to be pretty tough.

 

[Sean]

Yes I would agree about a locust species. We have black locust aplenty growing up here and has the same pattern and shapes of leaves. The bark on the bigger trees is quite grovvy and nice looking imo.

 

[norson]

Then, black locust it is! I'm not at all surprised at the name after seeing where I've pulled off some of the rotten bark. I've been doing this kinda stuff a long long time and this is another one of those "beauty- in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder-only" pieces.

Thank YOU

 

[MJC4]

If it has no thorns and is planted along a bike path in Northern Illinois, my bet would be thornless common honeylocust. There are several cultivars ( cultivated varieties ) commonly planted as landscape trees in this area. Skyline and Shademaster are large dark green leafed varieties and the Sunburst cultivar is a slightly smaller tree with new growth that is a golden yellow, hence its name. We have the Sunburst cultivar planted on our property. Before I got into stick making we lost one of our Sunburst to a severe storm several years ago. We cut up. chipped and burned the wood!