Over the years, this blog has revealed to me phenomena in the natural world that I have either never seen before or phenomena that I have seen, but forgotten about. It seems that every year when the shad trees blossom in early spring, I feel that it is our one and only flowering tree here in the cold and frozen Northeast. This just isn't true. Shad trees, wild cherry, viburnum, and the now flowering black locust all make a beautiful appearance here at some point as things warm up. While we may not have the variety of a region such as the Mid-Atlantic states, we do have our share.
The black locust tree may have the most beautiful blossoms of all of them. I was talking about them yesterday with a friend of mine, and he said that the wood of a black locust is very hard, that it is often used for railroad ties.
The black locust is really a scraggly looking tree for most of the year. It has a very shaggy bark, and a bottom-heavy, unappealing shape. Their blossoms, however, are delicate and beautiful. It's almost hard to believe that such a beautiful blossom could come from such an ugly looking tree. It reminds me a little of our sugar maple trees. Many of the old ones look rough, weather-beaten, and gnarled. It seems incongruous that such specimens could produce such heavenly ambrosia in the form of maple syrup.
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