Locust Pods

The honey locust tree some blocks from here is dropping pods:Years ago, in Vienna, I saw carob pods sold as "Johannisbrot", evidently from a tradition that these were the "locusts" John the Baptist ate in the desert. The OED gives as its fourth definition of locust "a. The fruit of the carob tree; a locust-bean. b. A cassia-pod, the fruit of Cassia fistula.", going on to say(The Gr. name ἀκρίς, properly denoting the insect, is applied in the Levant to the carob-pod, from some resemblance in form; and from very early times it has been believed by many that the 'locusts' eaten by John the Baptist were these pods. The application to the cassia-pod is due to confusion with the carob-pod.)The fifth definition is "Locust Tree".The confusion of pods carried over to the Americas, very early, it seems. The Audubon Society field guide says that the English settlers in Jamestown named the tree designated Robinsia Pseudocacia, now generally called the Black Locust, "locust" after its pods'…