Gymnocladus Dioicus

COMMON NAME: Kentucky Coffee Tree; Coffee-tree

FAMILY: Pea Family; Fabaceae

GROWTH HABIT: A tall tree with an open crown.

FOLIAGE: Alternate, bipinnately compound, deciduous. Numerous leaflets; each smooth-margined, ovate,usually with sharply pointed apex. Bases most often rounded, but may be wedge-shaped. 1 - 2 1/2 in. long; glabrous or slightly pubescent below when young, on a short petiolule. Entire leaf 12 - 36 in. long. Late to leaf out in spring.

BUDS: 2 -3 together and deeply sunken in the bark.

BARK: Gray or gray-brown, roughly fissured and scaly. thin, twisted ridges stand out at wide angles from surface of truck.

FLOWERS: Early to mid-May. Fragrant, pale greenish-white; males and females on separate trees. Blossoms not typical of pea family.

FRUIT: A thick, reddish-brown, somewhat sickle-shaped, woody pod. Formed by early fall (on female trees only), and remaining on the tree after the leaves have fallen. 3 - 9 in long. contains several rounded seed with a sweet pulp between them.

NATIVE HABITAT: Western New York and Pennsylvania, west to Minnesota and Nebraska; south to Tennessee and Oklahoma.