Honey Locust - Sunburst

If you want an attractive hardwood shade tree that grows quickly and has a lot of style, take a good look at the native Sunburst Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis 'Suncole'). This is a great tree that handles tough conditions without any trouble.

This is a wonderful selection for the home landscape. It's pollution, drought and salt tolerant and will give you very little trouble. You won't even have a big job with fall cleanup!

Sunburst is considered by many to be the perfect lawn tree. It grows into a vase shape and with a beautiful rounded canopy.

The leaves are one of its best features. Our horticulture team calls them "pinnately compound", which means each leaf has tiny, symmetrical leaves growing nicely along a central leaflet.

The fine-textured, compound leaves cast refreshing dappled shade. Your lawn grasses can grow beneath it. Pretty perennials or small shrubs for partial shade can easily establish and grow for you directly underneath it.

And little leaves? So much easier to pick up in fall. Often, a majority of them will just be whisked up by the wind and carried away. The tiny leaves that are left can actually be left to break down into rich, organic compost over the winter. Or zip, zip, zip - a quick pass of the mower and you're DONE with fall cleanup! No raking required.

Sunburst Honeylocust is well-known for bright sunny yellow leaves that emerge in the spring. As the new growth expands, the foliage at the tips remains very yellow until it matures. The leaves are nicely green through the summer and turn a lovely golden-yellow in the fall.

This tree is a tough cookie that excels in areas where others don't. We're talking compacted soil, clay soil, urban pollution, high heat, limited maintenance or care.

Sunburst is very adaptable to most soils, as long as it drains well. Sunburst Honeylocust is also a very hard wooded tree that tolerates ice storms and wind with few problems.

Simply plant it in full sun and give it the space to grow and watch this fast-growing tree thrive.