Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) is a drought-tolerant fast growing tree, which could be an alternative to the more common tree species used in short-rotation coppice on marginal land. The plasticity of black locust in the form of ecophysiological and morphological adaptations to drought is an important precondition for its successful growth in such areas. However, adaptation to drought stress is detrimental to primary production. Furthermore, the soil water availability condition of the initial stage of development may have an impact on the tree resilience. We aimed to investigate the effect of drought stress applied during the resprouting on the drought tolerance of the plant, by examining the black locust growth patterns. We exposed young trees in lysimeters to different cycles of drought. The drought memory affected the plant growth performance and its drought tolerance: the plants resprouting under drought conditions were more drought tolerant than the well-watered ones. Black locust tolerates drastic soil water availability variations without altering its water use efficiency (2.57？g？L？1), evaluated under drought stress. Due to its constant water use efficiency and the high phenotypic plasticity, black locust could become an important species to be cultivated on marginal land. 1. Introduction Summer drought, as observed during extreme events in Central Europe in 2003 [1], is one of the major abiotic stress factors that limit plant growth and have drastic effects on the ecosystem productivity. The ongoing climate change amplifies the interannual climate variability and changes the seasonal distribution of rainfall in Central Europe [2]. Within Central Europe particularly the southern parts of Brandenburg and Poland will be highly vulnerable to climate change and a decrease in summer precipitation is forecasted. Consequently, drought periods during the growth season are to be expected [3]. In this region the reduced soil water availability (SWA), in combination with sandy soils, has led to negative effects on the productivity of the ecosystem [4]. An integrated concept of active species selection and an appropriate management of tree stands could mitigate the effect of the climatic stress to a certain extent. Therefore, it is important to assess the plasticity of the species to drought stress by understanding the plant response in terms of water consumption, growth performance, and production [5]. This is particularly important for short-rotation coppice (SRC) systems, where the primary production is driven mainly by the SWA [6, 7]. Black
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