Noteworthy Catalpa and Locust ID

This has got to be the most majestic looking Catalpa I’ve come across. I love the way the limbs sprawl out and create an enormous canopy. You can tell this tree never had to compete for sunlight. The sign on the front of the house dates the house itself to 1781. I couldn’t begin to speculate how old the tree is though.


A couple houses down there’s a Locust tree that I haven’t been able to pin down. Sorry about the pictures, I got as close as I could without trespassing. The leaves say Locust all day long but the bark says... I don’t know. My best guess is some kind of wild honey locust not from around here. All I see in my area for honey locust are hybridized yard trees and street trees, which look quite different.

 

You're right with honey locust. Leaf clusters and small branches look right. Never saw one that large to know what the bark would look like on a big old tree

 

the utility right of way cutout on the Catalpa isn’t horrible. Must be a highly regarded tree.

 

I’m guessing since it’s on a historical property the arborist took extra care with it. The whole neighborhood has some beautiful trees. Cedars, black walnuts, and the oldest, largest Norway Spruce I’ve ever seen. If I think of it I’ll snap a picture tomorrow.

 

That is quite a big catalpa. What do you guesstimate the DBH to be? Cant say ive ever seen one that big myself. They are pretty in bloom. Couple down the street from me. Leaves and bark say BL to me.

 

Hard to tell. My best guess is 36”. Pictures are deceiving. I didn’t want to get too close and spook the homeowner LOL

 

Here’s the large spruce. This has to be around 40” DBH. I've never seen one with a trunk this stout. Seems they like to grow more vertically than horizontally.

 

These are the leaves from what I believe to be honey locust. If they're not, I really stumped as to what they could be. There's not too many trees that have small compound leaves like that (at least that I'm aware of)
Hard to tell since it looks like I took the picture with a friggin' potato

 

Heres some Ct brand honey locust bark I scrounged. Could be the same, hard to tell with the Ivy.
In your last pic there’s a sprig of fresh growth tree with thorns on it. Maybe a clue?

 

I gotta respectfully disagree on the BL. The bark doesn't have the deep cracks and the leaves look more feathery than BL. Maybe we could make a midnight raid and take it back to our laboratory for further diagnostics.

 

Potato cam...sounds like something from one of the James Bond spoof's... or maybe Inspector Gadget's "tools"