I just recently learned of the existance of this awesome tree, and I’m interested in trying to create a locally adapted variety, or find some diversity and see what’s possible with this species.
Is anyone else already working with this species? If so, what are your goals? I’m most interested in the use of green underripe pods as a food source.
There were seeds available through Experimental Farm Network last year. It is a very cool tree.
Weird Explorer on YouTube also did an episode on it.
I’ve never foraged for this plant altho I hope to get a chance too. So far it seems the most best Safest use case is Boiling the seeds & eating them like Lima Beans the size of Chestnuts. I’ve also read that the Goo/gel around the seed inside the pod was technically edible, supposedly tasting sweet & gooey but there wasn’t enough confirmed info as a Vegan Cookbook said the pulp was also poisonous. Perhaps it’s only safely edible cooked but It kind of be annoying to scoop the goo out, just to cook it. I don’t know, would love more info, but at least I know the seed is edible cooked.
It’s also in the same Umtiza Clade as Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) & Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqua). This it’s very likely graft compatible & maybe even Crossable!
It should grow in your area without much trouble. I’ve seen it wild up in to northern Zone 5 here in Indiana. It’s not common up there, but it’s around.
Hmmm. I’ve previously ignored this species because I’m not interested in coffee substitutes. (I don’t drink coffee for religious reasons, and it smells gross to me anyway, so “this works to make something like coffee” means nothing to me.) But if it has sticky goop in the seed pods, and it’s closely related to honey locust and carob, and it’s edible and tastes sweet . . .
That sounds quite interesting to me. Especially if it’s naturally thornless, and I don’t see any references to it having thorns. Does anyone know for sure if it’s thornless?
It would be very interesting it if can be crossed with carob, which would benefit from more cold hardiness and is naturally thornless as well.
Hey, Professor Porcupine, do you have one of those interesting phylogenetic trees you’re always finding for this clade? 
It is thornless. I find the goo smells unpleasant, but I also dislike cilantro, so take that fwiw.
Ha ha ha! In my opinion, cilantro is the second most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted. Only onions are worse. 
What does the goo smell like to you? If it smells like cilantro, that’s definitely a warning sign that I won’t like it. 
It’s been two or three years since I messed with it. I just remember it smelling weird. Not like cilantro though.
YES! I actually have Pretty much the entire Fabaceae Subfamilies too!
Specifically here’s the Honeylocust & Kentucky Coffeetree portion
It’s also something I’ve been speculating! They both belong to the same Umtiza claude, However if you notice, the claude has 2 different groups. Honeylocust, Kentucky Coffeetree & Umtiza belong to 1 group and Carob in another. IDK if they is hybridization potential between the 2 groups, maybe but There’s probably a higher chance of Honey Locust x Kentucky CoffeeTree working first before crossing with Carob. It makes sense if you think about it, both Honeylocust & Kentucky Coffee Tree have Barely Edible Fruit Pulp inside their pod that taste sweet but in a very weird medicnal way like it’s something I shouldn’t be eating (And that’s just from a little taste of both species). Carrob on the other hand has Edible fruit pulp, I doubt there is any off taste in it’s Sweet pulp.
However I’ve heard some folks are trying to breed a Better tasting Honeylocust pod, so don’t trow away all hope! I don’t remember if they were breeding for bigger seeds or fruit pulp specifcally? Reguardless the Seeds of both Kentucky Coffee Tree & Honey Locust are edible if Cooked like you would Lima Beans. So perhaps the focus should be breeding for the edible seed rather than the Sweet Off tasting pulp with questionable edibility?
Wow, the phylogenetic trees are awesome! Crossing or grafting Gleditsia and Gymnocladus species is something I’m super interested in and planning to try and execute. It should be doable, especially considering that both have male trees with big flowers that produce lots of pollen.
An interesting connection I found to carob through experimenting is that the shells of the green seeds contain a clear galactomannan layer. When dried and crushed, it functions effectively like gelatin. Carob gum is very similar and is used commonly as a food thickener.
It is definitely thornless, and there are cultivars used as street trees but they aren’t bred to remove thorns, usually just for interesting foliage and to not produce seeds.
I haven’t taken much interest in the goop, having tasted it, it does have a weird medicinal taste that sort of numbs the mouth (maybe some medicinal use?). The seeds though, when boiled for a while to make then edible, are delicious and taste like a sweet bean or pea.
Awesome! Also if they are grafted to each other, it only helps smooth out the Hybridization.
Plus once you do get Hybrid seeds & you get it to grow, graft the Hybrid Seedling scion onto a Mature Tree you want it to be more like, so that your mature tree mentors the Young Hybrid Scion. Eventually when the young scion makes fruits, you’ll notice the Mentor Tree’s impacted genetics into the scions seeds. This is known as Horizontal Gene Flow via grafting. I also suspect that young Gleditsia x Gymnocladus hybrid Seedling will be more plastid thus more susecptable to mature tree infuseing it’s influence via the graft. Imagine if the mentoring tree is the Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua)? I think it’s possible!
WHOA! Is the Dried Clear galactomannan layer easy to harvet? Could you take a photo? I’m so confused at where in the shells of the green seed is the clear layer found, just beneath the seedshell or over the entire seed like a seed gel?
Reguardless, do you think the Carob will be hardy enough if it’s grafted onto Honeylocust Or Coffeetree Rootstock? Or will the scion also freeze too? Hardines zone for Carob is 9-11 meaning it can only take light frost?
Ah, so thornless varieties of Carob do exist, are they as bad as Honeylocust?
Is this for the Carob tree or Honeylocust or Kentucky Cofeetree?
Well, of course I had to go check on those two closest relatives of carob listed on the chart! 
Sadly, I didn’t see any edible uses listed for either of them . . .
As far as I know, the entire carob species is thornless. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Same, I search both & couldn’t find anything either. It seems there isnt much info on both species Tetrapterocarpon geayi & Acrocarpus fraxinifolius.
All I could find about Acrocarpus fraxinifolius was this shop link with somewhat useful info, but nothing about edibility. Graines de Acrocarpus fraxinifolius - Mundani - Boutique Végétale
However PFAF had Gum listed as an edible source? IDK what that’s all about (Could be a typo as it also says edible used “none”. Acrocarpus fraxinifolius Pink Cedar, Shingle Tree PFAF Plant Database
As for Tetrapterocarpon geayi, all I could find was an scientific paper simply just mention the plant being used for “for Respiratory System problem”.
