The leaves are a bit bigger and very thin & soft; they are not quite like the wild black locust we have around here. The purple flowers are larger and in tighter racemes than the wild type. Obviously, the purple color sets it apart from the kind we are used to seeing. The flowers did not seem fragrant, either, which was quite a disappointment.
It's been a while since I was close to an immature wild-type black locust, but the bark of the "purple robe" version seems completely different. The thorny suckers coming up in the nearby landscape? Those looked like classic black locust, except that the thorns were much longer. I haven't figured that out yet, either. I was unable to find a thorn on the specimen tree, yet all the suckers coming up through the nearby bushes were aggressively thorny.
It's been a while since I was close to an immature wild-type black locust, but the bark of the "purple robe" version seems completely different. The thorny suckers coming up in the nearby landscape? Those looked like classic black locust, except that the thorns were much longer. I haven't figured that out yet, either. I was unable to find a thorn on the specimen tree, yet all the suckers coming up through the nearby bushes were aggressively thorny.
