Ecological research and life at mid-sized liberal arts university
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Honey Locust... one for the brave tree hugger
Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) just off the railroad tracks in Wilkes-Barre. Some of the thorns well exceed 10 cm. Why have such large thorns? I would think it would be some anti-herbivory strategy, its thorny relatives throughout the tropics. But why in North America? Perhaps this warded off the giant ground sloth before their extinction thousands of years ago. Yet the thorns persist. Interesting.
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Given that there have only been ~100 generations of Honey Locust since Giant Sloth extinction, should we expect any loss of a vestigial characteristic on that time scale absent negative selection?
ReplyDeleteFair point but there must be some cost to making the thorns so there must be some negative selection. Would be interesting to see how much is invested in making thorns.
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