Links Between State Power and Tree Species: Black Locust in Central Europe

This article shows how historical enquiry can unveil the complexity of interaction between tree species and politics, with a focus on the case of the invasive black locust species in Hungary. This tree became the subject of high politics at three historical moments: during the mid-eighteenth-century wars, post-World War I afforestation programs, and the mid-2010s populist challenge to the European Union.