A medium-sized, intolerant tree on a variety of sites in the central U.S. Its common name comes from a sweet substance in the fruit and the scientific name (triacanthos) is Greek for "3-thorned". Leaves are deciduous, alternate pinnately and bipinnately compound. Leaflets are dark green, glabrous, and lanceolate-elliptic with a crenulate margin. Twigs are relatively stout, with 3-branched thorns 2-7" long (ornamental varieties thornless), and minute superposed buds. Fruit is a persistent, stout, woody, dark reddish-brown legume 4-10" long. Bark is lenticulate, and brown turning to black with plates or superficially scaly ridges.