Gleditsia caspica

{{Short description|Species of legume}}

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|image = Gleditsia_caspica.jpg

|genus = Gleditsia

|species = caspica

|authority = Desf.

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Gleditsia caspica, the Caspian locust or Persian honeylocust, is a species of Gleditsia native to western Asia, in the Caucasus region of Azerbaijan and northern Iran, close to the Caspian Sea.{{GRIN | accessdate = 23 January 2018}}Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan {{ISBN|0-333-47494-5}}.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 12 m tall, with the trunk covered in numerous, 10–20 cm long branched spines. The leaves are pinnate or bipinnate, up to 25 cm long, with 12–20 leaflets; bipinnate leaves have six to eight pinnae. The leaflets are up to 5 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are greenish, produced in racemes up to 10 cm long. The fruit is a pod 20 cm long and 3 cm broad.Cirrusimage: [http://www.cirrusimage.com/tree_locust_caspian.htm Gleditsia caspica]

It is closely related to Gleditsia japonica (syn. G. horrida) from eastern Asia, and is treated as a subspecies of it by some botanists, Gleditsia horrida subsp. caspica (Desf.) J.Paclt.Paclt, J. (1982). Gleditsia caspia, Not a Distinct Species (Leguminosae). Taxon 31 (2): 336-339 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1220006 Abstract].