Robinia (Robinia pseudoacacia), originates from North America, centering in the Appalachian Mountains and the Ozark Plateau.
Natural distribution map for Robinia pseudoacacia
Photo by Rhododendrites, 2025. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Jeremy Johnson, 2006. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by BS Thurner Hof, 2007. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Rhododendrites, 2025. Wikimedia Commons
It hosts 50 kinds of butterflies and moths, offers its seeds for game birds, squirrels and rabbits and provides its trunk for woodpeckers and bats as nests.
Meanwhile, beetle Odontota dorsalis mines its leaves, beetle Megacyllene robiniae and Euwallacea fornicatus bore its trunk, and fungus Fulvifomes robinia rots its heart, keeping it in natural balance.
Photo by Katja Schulz, 2012. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Judy Gallagher, 2020. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Kaydubsthehikingscientist, 2020. Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Katja Schulz, 2012. Wikimedia Commons
For its striking white flowers and elegant leaves, Robinia was brought to Europe in the early 17th century. It was distributed all over European botanical gardens as a rare ornamental exotic for 200 years from 1601 France, to 1662 Italy, to 1672 Germany, later Austria, 1800 Switzerland.
At the end of the 18th century, Central Europe had a “Robinia Mania”. Increasing demands of wood for industrialisation, need to control erosion after forest degradation, need to stabilise new railways and rivers embankments.
Industrialisation allied people with Robinia for its long-lasting quality, rapid and easy growth, big roots net and a lack of predators and pests.
Piles of Robinia wood in Poland
Photo by Péterffy István, 1972. Courtesy of Fortepan.
The first plantings of Robinia in South Tyrol date back to the first half of the 19th century, also as an ornamental tree. By the middle of the century, the species had already begun to grow wild.
In front of you, this very old Robinia tree is protected as a natural monument. It might be planted here as a street-side tree, having been part of the old city centre’s landscape for more than at least 50 years.
