# Bristly Locust (Robinia hispida)

> Rose-pink wisteria-like flowers in May on a suckering, nitrogen-fixing shrub for dry banks.

Also called rose locust, moss locust. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rose-locust/

![Rose locust (Robinia hispida) bristly branches crowded with large rose-pink pea flowers](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/rose-locust-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Steve Law, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARobinia_hispida_-_Flickr_-_peganum.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 8 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 8
- Grows wild in: Dry uplands, sandy barrens, old fields and edges
- Native range: 8 states, north to [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) and west to [Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN) and [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA)). Also recorded, not native, in [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Utah](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=UT), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV) and [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: May
- Fruit: Pods, July to September
- First crop: About 2 years
- Mature spread: 15 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Nitrogen fixing, Erosion control, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Bristly locust is native to the southern Appalachians and has naturalized widely on road cuts and mine spoil, where its running roots hold loose soil. The flowers are as showy as any garden shrub. Good for a bee planting on gravel, or for lining a long driveway where it can run.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Bristly locust is a colony more than a shrub. In a yard expect stems of 3 to 8 feet, though wild plants can reach 10, and a clump spreads 5 to 15 feet wide by root suckers. It grows fast, nearly three feet of new height a year on an average site in our growth estimator's model. It usually begins to flower in its second year.

Rose-pink pea flowers hang in clusters 2 to 4 inches long in May, and the name rose locust comes from that bloom. Bristly purple pods 2 to 3 inches long follow, each holding three to five seeds, and the stiff hairs on the branches, stalks and pods are what bristly means. Native bees and honey bees work the flowers, and highway crews have planted it to hold dry sand and to serve as a snow fence in the north.

It grows wild in the mountains from Virginia to Kentucky and south to Georgia and Alabama, in open woods, on mountain slopes and on sand hills, and it has spread far beyond that range.

## How to grow Bristly Locust

Bristly locust needs full sun and dry to average soil; sand, road cuts and mine spoil suit it. The roots run, so plan on a colony several times wider than the stems are tall, and keep it away from lawn edges and beds. Set plants 5 to 15 feet apart.

Plant in the dormant season. Saplings ship bare-root or in pots, and because they start as rooted suckers the roots are shallow and wide. Dig wide rather than deep, set the crown at grade, refill with the soil you removed, and water it in. Mulch lightly, off the stems, and skip the stake.

Water through the first summer only. This shrub fixes its own nitrogen, so do not feed it; rich ground only makes it run harder. Rabbits and deer browse new shoots, so cage a young plant for its first two winters, then cut winter-killed tips back in spring.

Stems and pods carry stiff reddish bristles that catch on skin and clothing, so wear sleeves around it. The wood is brittle and breaks in ice and wind. It seldom sets seed, spreading instead by root suckers, which holds a bank and overruns a border. Wisconsin restricts its sale and transport, so we do not send it there.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Robinia hispida](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/robinia-hispida/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Robinia hispida](https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=m120)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Robinia hispida](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ROHI)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: bristly locust, Robinia hispida](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=406)
- [Illinois Wildflowers (John Hilty): Bristly Locust, Robinia hispida](https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/bristly_locust.htm)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Robinia chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Robinia.pdf)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Robinia hispida, bristly locust](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/robinia/hispida/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: Bristly locust, Robinia hispida](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/bristly-locust/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Robinia hispida, Bristly Locust](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.149692/Robinia_hispida)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for dry, sandy soil: the plants of barrens and dunes, and how to grow them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-for-dry-sandy-soil/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs that fix nitrogen, and the legumes that do not](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-that-fix-nitrogen/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other locusts (Robinia) we grow: [Black Locust](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-locust/index.html.md), [Clammy Locust](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/clammy-locust/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Dangleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dangleberry/index.html.md), [Running Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/running-serviceberry/index.html.md), [Hillside Blueberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hillside-blueberry/index.html.md) and [New Jersey Tea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/new-jersey-tea/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Alabama Snow-wreath](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/alabama-snow-wreath/index.html.md), [Carolina Buckthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/carolina-buckthorn/index.html.md), [Inkberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/inkberry/index.html.md) and [American Fly Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-fly-honeysuckle/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Bristly Locust (Rose Locust), add ?species=rose-locust with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=rose-locust&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Bristly Locust (Rose Locust)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=rose-locust): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=rose-locust (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=rose-locust (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=rose-locust:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=rose-locust&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=rose-locust&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=rose-locust