"Girls from the east, boys from the west, picking Locust to play house. String by string, handful by handful, I picked them too in my childhood..."
The song "Picking Locust" evokes memories of childhoods spent beneath the Locust Tree.
Locust are the winged fruit of the Locust Tree, a plant in the elm family.
They bloom after the Spring Equinox each year. When they first appear, they are green, round, and shiny, closely resembling small copper coins strung together, which is how they got their name.
The *Compendium of Materia Medica* records: "Before the locust tree grows leaves, its pods first appear between the branches. They are shaped like coins but smaller, white in color, and grow in clusters. They are commonly called Locust."
