I was lucky to be in the car at the right time this morning to catch a story about Mastodons in Manhattan: A Botanical Puzzle, i.e., why honey locust trees in NYCity have long thorns - an interesting story (click on the link and click on "Listen Now") which, among others, features our blog-friend Carl Buell.
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Gosh, I woke up to that story this morning. Not a great image to start the day with....
And just last night I was joking with some friends over dinner about muscle development and mouse and cow tongues. Rather odd coincidence.
Locusts are beautiful, their flowers smell beautifully, and the locust honey is the best thing ever! But do not try to lick the tree!
Neat! This reminds me of the Science paper from a two months ago or so about how megaherbivores can change the landscape in Africa. What I would like to know, then, is if the tree produces more thorns/defenses when its being actively browsed versus trees that are not (the acacia trees in the Science study produced more thorns when they were being "attacked" by the herbivores; it's a plastic response). Thanks for sharing this, Bora!