Sapling ID please

[andym]

I'm trying to determine what these thorny saplings are in my woodlot. The thorns are around 1/2 inch long. I think it may be some kind of locust, but I don't have any mature ones in my 6 acres. I'll have to wait til spring to obtain leaves.
These saplings are obnoxious but I mostly want to know if they are beneficial for deer habitat or if they should be eradicated.

Edit: the thorns appear only on the branches, not the trunk.

 

[bigealta]

IDK but this may help.

Locust Trees: A Thorny Problem for Some Landowners | Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation

Considerations for managing honey locust on private lands

www.wildlifedepartment.com

 

[ScottLewis]

It could be locust. Thorns do appear on the trunk of a locust when the tree is small, one inch diameter or 2 inch diameter.

 

[Slimdusty]

Doesn’t look like black locust to me, maybe more of a thorny shrub type, wild rose family?

 

[Slimdusty]

Edit- One of the pics, if I am looking at the right thing, kind of has a honey locust appearance. Hawthorn also comes to mind.

 

[Mutineer]

Could be the highly invasive multiflora rose, supposedly they were introduced years ago, in Pennsylvania according to my Pennsylvania friends, to provide food for the ruffed grouse. They can get pretty big trunks if not attacked with vigor. A real PITA.

 

[RockCastile]

IDK either but the size of those buds do not look like black locust or multiflora rose to me. I'm not familiar with honey locust tho.

 

[andym]

Edit- One of the pics, if I am looking at the right thing, kind of has a honey locust appearance. Hawthorn also comes to mind.

I do have lots of Hawthorne as well. They don't have this vicious of thorns though.

 

[bigealta]

My buddy in Utah was clearing brush and had a hawthorne spike, from a large sapling size tree, whip through his jeans, into his knee.

I had to take him to the emergency room where they thought he was being a baby about the pain. After, negative x rays, we talked the night doc into doing some "exploratory cuts". He found the broken tip of the spike deep in his knee.

So yes Hawthorne can have big nasty spikes.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Could it be prickly ash? I have a thick stand here. They spread via rhizomes, so they can grow in clonal coloniees.

 

[andym]

Could it be prickly ash?

I think you nailed it based on a couple of google searches. Will check into it in more detail when I have time. The reddish buds seem to match, but the photo I posted above is a little blurry.

 

[snojetter]

Prickly ash was my first thought. Can grow in real dense thickets you'd never be able to get through on foot. The stuff on my property is not thick, but you know it when find it. Supposedly the seeds can be used as a substitute for black pepper - I've never tried it.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Supposedly the seeds can be used as a substitute for black pepper - I've never tried it.

The berries have a very strange spiciness that I cannot explain. Very different than normal pepper.

My wife and I went to a trendy restaurant in Milwaukee with my in laws (they like that kind of place). I had some spicy chicken wings, and I am certain they were spiced with prickly ash. So, it is a fancy spice.

Be aware that the leaves look a lot like black locust leaves and you do not want to put anything from a black locust in your mouth.