Honey Locust

Honey locust trees grow thorns up to 12 inches long - massive, branched spikes that can puncture tires and impale unwary hikers. These thorns seem excessive for defending against modern herbivores. But honey locust evolved when mastodons and ground sloths roamed North America, and its thorns are sized for megafauna defense. The trees are still defending against ghosts.

This anachronistic defense illustrates evolutionary lag. The megafauna went extinct 10,000-13,000 years ago, but natural selection hasn't had time to reduce the thorns. Producing massive thorns costs resources that could go toward growth or reproduction, but the cost hasn't been high enough relative to other pressures to drive thorn reduction. The defense persists past its purpose.

Honey locust seed pods tell the same story. The sweet pulp surrounding seeds was designed to attract megafauna that would eat pods, pass seeds through digestive tracts, and deposit them with fertilizer. Today, cattle and horses fill this role where they've been introduced. The tree evolved for a world that no longer exists but functions in the current world by accident.

The business insight is that legacy features persist past their original purpose. Companies maintain practices, products, or organizational structures evolved for past competitive environments. Sometimes these anachronisms become assets in new contexts; sometimes they're pure cost. Honey locust teaches that evolution (biological or organizational) preserves past adaptations until pressure forces change.