The ‘gift of the new world’: Retelling the trajectories of black Locust in France

Abstract

This article provides a detailed account of the shifting places of the black Locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia) in France, from its introduction as a North American exotic in the early seventeenth century to the present. Three phases or moments are identified, articulating material and discursive dimensions of the trajectory of the tree — and of the spaces where it became prominent: exhortation, instrumentalization and marginalization. Due to a long introduction timeline and unmatched levels of expectations for versatility, the intertwined social-ecological dynamics of black Locust are marked by several reframings and rediscoveries. As such, a geohistorical focus on French ‘acacia’ landscapes offers an original window on the political economies of past and ongoing regional forest transitions of Western Europe.