Keyed Out #046 — Robinia pseudoacacia

Question 1

Its flowers are one-sided rather than radial: a broad petal stands upright at the back, two narrow ones flank the sides, and the two lowest are joined into a boat enclosing the {stamen}s.

Accepted Answer

pea family

Question 2

Its fruit is a dry pod grown from a single chamber, splitting along both of its long edges at once into two halves that curl as they dry.

Accepted Answer

Fabaceae

Question 3

A pair of short sharp spines flanks each leaf scar on the twig, one on either side, developed from the leaf's own basal appendages rather than sprouting from the branch.

Accepted Answer

Robinia

Question 4

Its leaves divide once and once only, into a row of paired oval divisions with a single odd one at the tip, never dividing a second time into divisions of divisions.

Accepted Answer

Robinia

Question 5

Its pea flowers are white and powerfully sweet-scented, hanging in {raceme}s 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) long, rather than rose-pink and near-scentless.

Accepted Answer

Robinia pseudoacacia

Question 6

Bark on a mature trunk is cut into deep furrows between hard ridges knitted into a coarse interlacing net, neither peeling away in long flat plates that curl at the edges nor left pale and only shallowly grooved.

Accepted Answer

Robinia pseudoacacia