Coffeetree. Kentucky Coffeetree
Gymnocladus dioica (L.) Koch [Gymnocladus canadensis Lam.]
HABIT.—A slender tree 50-75 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 2-3 feet; divides near the ground into several stems which spread slightly to form a narrow, pyramidal crown; branchlets stout, clumsy, blunt, with conspicuous leaf-scars.
LEAVES.—Alternate, bipinnately compound, 1-3 feet long. Leaflets 40 or more, 2-2-1/2 inches long and one-half as broad; short-stalked; ovate, acute; entire; thin and firm; dark green above, pale yellow-green and glabrous beneath. Petioles stout, terete, glabrous. Appear late in spring.
FLOWERS.—June, after the leaves; dioecious; greenish white; the staminate short-stalked, in racemose corymbs 3-4 inches long; the pistillate long-stalked, in racemes 10-12 inches long; calyx tubular, hairy; petals 5, keeled, nearly white; stamens 10; ovary hairy.
FRUIT.—Ripens in autumn, but remains closed until late in winter; short-stalked, red-brown legumes 6-10 inches long, 1-1/2-2 inches wide, containing 6-9 large, flat seeds.
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds minute, depressed, 2 in the axil of each leaf, bronze-brown, silky-pubescent.
BARK.—Twigs coated with short, dense, reddish pubescence, becoming light brown; thick, deeply fissured and scaly on the trunk, dark gray.
WOOD.—Heavy, somewhat soft, strong, coarse-grained, very durable in contact with the soil, light red-brown, with thin, lighter colored sapwood.
DISTRIBUTION.—Southern Michigan as far north as the Grand River. Infrequent.