Black locust trees

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. After a month of shaking my head with dismay when the destructive Asian wistarias were flowering like mad everywhere—and of course flowers to be followed by seeds—I was dismayed when I saw a spot near town covered with white pendulous blooms (a white invasive wistaria?) There are white cultivars in the trade but I didn’t need to worry about this plant. I pulled over and, after navigating the always present ditch filled with blackberry vines, managed to reach what was in fact a large tree covered with clusters of flowers, some I could reach with my clippers. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the mountains that I’d forgotten about the native black locust trees that bloomed there profusely in summer when we would visit cousins in Saluda, North Carolina.