Hoyt Arboretum, Portland, Oregon, USA

Common name: Kentucky coffee tree

Family: Fabaceae

Distribution: Southeast USA

Habitat: Mixed evergreen forest

IUCN Red list: Vulnerable

Hardiness: Zone 3b -35 to -30 F

Life form: Deciduous tree

Usage: Ornamental shade tree

Comments: Kentucky coffee-tree is a tall deciduous tree with rough, scaly gray-brown bark and large bipinnate compound leaves. Large leaves to 3’ long, divided into 3-7 pairs of pinnae, with individual leaflets 1-3” long. Leaflets are blue-green in summer, turning an undistinguished yellow in fall. Larger trees typically cast light shade. As the specific epithet suggests, the species is dioecious (separate male and female trees). Greenish white flowers appear in late spring (May-June). Male flowers in clusters to 4” long. Female flowers in panicles to 12” long. Female flowers are fragrant. Fertilized female flowers give way to flattened reddish brown pods to 10”long which ripen in October and persist well into winter.
Best grown in full sun to part shade in well-drained soils, but will tolerate poor soils and clay if the drainage is adequate.