See also Caragana, Rose acacia (R. hispida), and Yellow acacia (Vachellia).

☙ Black locust

Robinia pseudoacacia L. (1753). WFO

Cherokee / TsalagiTsalagi Gawonihisd, áŁáŽłáŽ© ᎩᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ: ᎧᎶᏇᏗ (káșĄlogwehdi) (Raven Rock Dictionary, King (2015)); galiwñ’dǐ (L. Cannady (2023) - see notes).

Period English: acacia; ▲︎ Arkansa locust; TTA ▲︎ common locust tree; EWW ▲︎ locust; O&B CHW LH ▲︎ pseudo acacia; EWW ▲︎ white acacia. EWW

Period French: acacia m.; BD acacia des jardins m. ('garden acacia'); JDS

Period German: Akazie f.; JRV AkazienblĂŒthe f. ('acacia blossom'); JRV Akazien-Schotendorn f. JDS

Sentiments:

🏶︎ MystĂšreMystery ◼︎ (1811); BD

🏶︎ ❗︎ Amour platoniquePlatonic love ◼︎ (1819-c.1825); CLT LA-M

  ❗︎ Chaste love ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1850); HP:FE TTA FSO LH S&K HGA:OT

  ❗︎ Friendship ▲︎◆︎ (1839-1884); FS GAL CMK KG

  ❗︎ Platonic love ▲︎◆︎ (1840-1869); CHW FSO HGA:LOF RT:LPF

🏶︎ Elegance ▲︎ (1832-1840); EWW TM
 See also Rose acacia.

🏶︎ Beauty in retirement ▲︎ (1834); O&B

🏶︎ Komm an mein Herz.Come to my heart. ●︎ (c.1880). JRV

Blossom specifically:

🏶︎ Wann Ćżehe ich dich wieder?When will I see you again? ●︎ (c.1880). JRV

Sprig of leaves:

🏶︎ ❗︎ I offer you my friendship ▲︎ (1884). CMK

Region:

Native: North-Central, Northeastern and Southeastern USA. Its exact native range is unknown, but appears centred around the Appalachian Mountains and the Ozark Pleateau and Ouachita Mountains.WFO

Introduced: Throughout temperate regions worldwide, including: Macaronesia; Northern Africa; Southern Africa; RĂ©union; Caucasus; China; Japan; Korea; Taiwan; Middle and Western Asia; Russia; the Indian Subcontinent; Aotearoa; broadly across Europe excluding Scandinavia and Ireland; broadly across Northern and Central America; Easter Island; Argentina Northeast; and Chile Central.WFO

Seasonality: Flowers late spring.

... in the months of May and June, it is laden with bunches of white sweet-scented flowers [...] The branches are liable to be shivered off by autumnal storms. EWW

Period Colours:

... in the months of May and June, it is laden with bunches of white sweet-scented flowers, resembling those of the laburnum in size and position. The foliage is of a beautiful light green, consisting of many elliptical, opposite or alternate, stalked leaflets. EWW

White with faintest crimson flush ... HGA:OT

Cited Verse:

❧ 'Eighteen Hundred and Eleven: A Poem', ◆︎ Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1812), as found in The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld vol. 1 (1825) pp.248-249; HP:FE

❧ 'The Light of the Haram', ◆︎ (Irish) Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh, An Oriental Romance (1817) pp.331-332 Read Here. CHW

  However, given Lalla Rookh's setting in Mughal East Asia, this is better associated with Vachellia.

đŸœ± On sentiments: The sentiment of ❗︎ chaste love and related arise from an alleged tradition among an Indigenous people of North America for young men to express 'a feeling of highest delicacy' RT:LPF to young women with the gift of a branch of flowering black locust.

Unfortunately, books of the period are not interested in recording who, exactly, this people were out of the many peoples Indigenous to North America - not even where they might have lived. The racist archetype of the 'noble savage' arises again and again in these explanations.

In my research, it appears likely the Indigenous people these writers refer to is either the Cherokee (áŽ á‚áŽá«áŻáŽą/áŁáŽłáŽ©), a people with early and consistent interaction with European settlers (and so were likely to feature in early ethnographies authored by and distributed among Europeans), who were resident in the areas that R. pseudoacacia grows, and have a recorded relationship with the tree; or one of the Algonquin-speaking tribes of the area now called Virginia, whose trade relationship with the Cherokee led to their extensive use of the tree.

My next step is to identify the ethnographic work these period authors are drawing this advice from - possibly a French text, given the sentiment is echoed by French authors. Once that is closer identified, I will be contacting the representatives of recognised tribes for advice on my next path as it concerns Native voices on the subject.

I will continue searching for the origin and truth of this tradition, if it is not, in fact, wholly fabricated, but as it stands, I must advise this sentiment is approached with caution.

I am indebted to and highly recommend Lauren R. Cannady's fantastic article, 'On the Persistence of the Organic: The Material Lives of the Robinia pseudoacacia' (2023) for providing contemporary research on this tree. You can read it here.

I was also intrigued by Veronique Greenwood's 2016 article, 'Your Legacy on Earth May Be a Plant' in Nautilus, which traces the footprint of the Cherokee in Appalacia using the black locust long after they were forced from the area by colonialists, touching on the history of Native cultivation long-overlooked in favour of a colonialism-serving narrative of 'untouched wilderness'. You can read that article here.


Abécédaire de Flore

B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811 ◼︎


EMBLÉMES TIRÉS DU RÈGNE VÉGÉTAL.


A.


Acacia signifie mystĂšre.


(146)




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