How Hard are Black Locust Trees?

[John Paul Sanborn]

I have seen consumption numbers of as little as 0.04% of body weight is toxic to horses; cattle may be affected by consumption of approximately 0.5% body weight.

This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under a Southern Region IPM Program special project number 97-EPMP-1-0153.

http://texnat.tamu.edu/cmplants/toxic/plants/blacklocust.html

Toxic agent
The toxic agent of black locust is robin, a protein toxin. All parts of the plant except the flower are toxic. Horses, cattle, sheep and poultry have been poisoned. Horses are most often poisoned and are the most susceptible species. Horses that consumed as little as 0.04 percent of their weight in bark showed signs of poisoning in 1.5 hours.​

So that is 20# per 500# of bodyweight. I think a horse could eat that w/o a problem.

 

[Sprig]

Geeze, we don't have it here but obviously burning it requires some good sense, good ventilation, and so forth. Did not know it was poisonous to critters (I am assuming that means most of us here too....aferall), good info mate!!

 

[rebelman]

They bloom in March or so white like dogwood. I love black locust. I'll leave one or two when clearing a lot. They give diversity and feature to logged or burnt areas.

 

[Canyon Angler]

http://texnat.tamu.edu/cmplants/toxic/plants/blacklocust.html

Toxic agent
The toxic agent of black locust is robin, a protein toxin. All parts of the plant except the flower are toxic. Horses, cattle, sheep and poultry have been poisoned. Horses are most often poisoned and are the most susceptible species. Horses that consumed as little as 0.04 percent of their weight in bark showed signs of poisoning in 1.5 hours.​

So that is 20# per 500# of bodyweight. I think a horse could eat that w/o a problem.

I think 0.04 percent of body weight in a 500# animal would be two-tenths of a pound (0.2#), not 20 pounds... Four one-hundredths of one percent ain't much...same as 400 ppm.

 

[kevinj]

Wear leather gloves

A word of advice. Watch out for those thorns. If you get poked by one, lots of times they break the little tip off and stay in your hand. If you dont remove it right away, it'll fester up. OUCH!!

 

[woodchux]

Wild cherry is also very toxic to horses [cyanide]