Anyone know what plant this is?

[lukebe]

Hi - I live in Newcastle, Australia. I have something growing in my front yard that has just taken off and is growing out of control. So I need to know if it's a nice plant that I should just trim or a weed that I should dig up and get rid of.

Here are some pics:

anyone can steer me in the right direction if I should keep or kill it would be appreciated.

Thankyou.

[Pat Kiewicz]

Well, if it was in my yard in Michigan, USA I might suspect it was a black locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia). And I certainly wouldn't want it growing right by my house. (As it's also considered an invasive, non-native pest, I probably shouldn't tolerate it in my yard, even though I love them in bloom and remember them fondly from Indiana.)

Seeing as you are in Australia, I suspect some sort of Acacia (wattle).

In any case, you probably don't want a thorny tree growing that close to a building, so digging it out or otherwise destroying it would be my advice.

[Gardñ]

[e-mail] (Pat Kiewicz) in news:W4WdnceTH6hBYTDYnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

i didn't look at all the photos. some cassias are weedy.

look for a likely-looking parent plant in the neighborhood. i'm not sure what critters would move hard legume seeds around.

[maxsilverstar]

Where did you get the idea that Robinia pseudoacacia is non-native to the US?

[Chris and Jacqui]

It looks very much like a locust to me. If that's what it is it will become a very large tree whose roots send up shoots like that all over the place. My advice would be to get rid of it asap.

Jacqui

[Timmins01]

digging it up,but in the end i won.

They do spread like crazy and will choke other plants. Von.

[Karen Fletcher]

"Growing out of control" is usually pretty indicative of a weed species.

Take a look for comparison:

's a good starting point for Australian weeds:

-- Karen

The Garden Gate

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." ^and cats -- Cicero =================================================================== On the Web since 1994 Forbes Best of Web 2002

[cb]

looks like it might be a honey locust (?)

[lukebe]

YES!!! as you said below. There are little shoots that look just like it that come up all over my front lawn. And when I say all over it's a pretty big lawn and they come up in random places pretty far from the plant.

[Farm1]

pretty

With thorns like that, it isn't any sort of Australian acacia that I've ever seen. I agree with others who think it's a robinia. But from your description of the shoots all over the lawn, it sounds like it's sending up suckers from another tree somewhere - nature strip tree maybe???

They are lovely trees but better suited to farmland than suburbia. I'd get rid of it in your situation, but I'd check first to see if it is suckers from a neighbouring tree of if it's coming from a seed origin somewhere. If it's suckering, you may just have to keep cutting the suckers out (depending on whether you want to kill the parent tree or not and that may not be desirable), but if it's seed then nuke them.

[lukebe]

Thanks for all your responses. After checking our pics I'm sure it's robina. For the moment i have cut the plant/tree down (it was pretty tall), drilled holes in the drunk and filled it with round-up (weed killer).

I'll see what that does to it before trying to dig up the roots and follow it.

Luke

Farm1 wrote:

[Pat Kiewicz]

Kiewicz)

It's non-native here in *MICHIGAN* and has been moved to other areas of the US where is it also non-native and can be invasive. It's one of the plants that Nature Conservancy volunteers grub out of local preserves on work days.

"ECOLOGICAL THREAT Black locust poses a serious threat to native vegetation in dry and sand prairies, oak savannas and upland forest edges, outside of its historic North American range. Native North American prairie and savanna ecosystems have been greatly reduced in size and are now represented by endangered ecosystem fragments. Once introduced to an area, black locust expands readily into areas where their shade reduces competition from other (sun- loving) plants. Dense clones of locust create shaded islands with little ground vegetation. Lack of ground fuel limits the use of fire in natural disturbance regimes. The large, fragrant blossoms of black locust compete with native plants for pollinating bees."

[maxsilverstar]

Thanks for your explanation and special thanks for the website reference. I now know a bit more than I did before you replied, and expect that further reading of the website will reduce my ignorance even more.