Sophora japonica 
aS 
KENTUCKY COFFEETREE chee 
Gymnocladus dioicus 
The Kentucky coffeetree is a member of 
_ the Legume Family along with two other 
trees mentioned in this guidebook, 
Japanese pagodatree and yellowwood. 
For general comments on the Legume 
Family, see yellowwood. 
The spectacular leaves are the largest 
of any Missouri tree. They are doubly 
compound: instead of leaflets on a stalk 
making up the leaf as in the more com- 
mon singly compound leaves, this species 
has several such “leafy” stalks branching 
from a main stalk, altogether making up a 
large, attractive, multibranched frond. 
As befits a legume, the (female) trees have beanlike pods—in Ken- 
tucky coffeetree they are large, woody, and conspicuous against the 
winter sky. They are lined on the inside with greenish pulp having the 
appearance of axle grease. Embedded in this pulp are the very large 
seeds to which the species owes the name “Kentucky coffeetree”. Early 
settlers prepared a hot beverage from the seeds, perhaps getting the idea 
21 
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