Locust tree can mean:
* Any of a number of tree species in the genera ''
Gleditsia'' or ''
Robinia'', including:
::
Honey locust (''Gleditsia triacanthos''), a leguminous tree with pods having a sweet, edible pulp
::
Black locust (''Robinia pseudoacacia''), a leguminous tree with toxic pods
::
Water locust (''Gleditsia aquatica''), a leguminous tree with one seed per pod
* Or less commonly, "African locust bean tree" (''
Parkia biglobosa''), which is also known as néré
* Also not commonly, the
carob tree, ''Ceratonia siliqua'', whose pods are called ''locust beans''.
Etymology
"Locust" comes from the Latin ''locusta'', meaning both "
locust" (the insect) and "
lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
". By analogy with a
levantine use of the Greek word for the insect, ''akris'', for the pods of the carob tree which supposedly resembled it, the pod-bearing North American tree was called "locust" starting in the 1630s.
References
{{Plant common name