New Mexico Locust:
A small tree with colourful clusters of pink-purple pea-like flowers,
and compound leaves, which grows on moist sites, canyons, and talus
slopes from 5,500 to 8,700 feet in elevation.
Deer and bighorn sheep eat the foliage; small animals and birds including
quail, chipmunks, and porcupine eat the seeds.
New Mexico Locust flowers from April in the lower elevations to July at
its upper limits. If you are in Georgetown, Colorado for the Fourth of
July, New Mexico Locust will likely be in bloom.
The generic name for locust, Robinia, is named for a famous
plantsman of the French court in the late 1600s.
Photo taken near Woods Canyon Lake in AZ.
(06-23-2008)