New Mexico Permaculture Plant of the Week – New Mexico Locust (Robinia neomexicana)

The New Mexico Locust is a great anchor tree for any food forest in New Mexico. It is in the sub family Faboideae in the Fabaceae(Pea Family). This means it’s a nitrogen fixing tree whose legumes can significantly improve soils. This is a native tree especially useful for erosion control due to its rapid growth and thicket forming tendencies. The legumes incorporate nitrogen into the soil improving the quality of the soil. It produces showy purple flowers in the spring. It has high calcium carbonate tolerance and low salinity tolerance. Optimum soil pH is 7.0 to 8.5. It is shade intolerant. The average crown width is 15 feet. It’s preferred elevation is 4500 – 8500 feet and should be considered essential to improving soil here. It’s preferred to the Siberian Pea Shrub in New Mexico as it’s more drought tolerant. The flowers are edible.