LEGUMINOSAE 



Kentucky Coffeetree 

 Gymnocladus dioicus (L.) K. Koch 



HABIT. A medium-sized to large tree 50-75 feet high and 

 2-3 feet in diameter (max. 110 by 4 feet); open, pyramidal 

 crown. 



LEAVES. Alternate; doubly pinnate with 40 or more leaflets; 

 1-3 feet long; leaflets 2-2 Vi inches long, ovate, acute, entire, 

 short-stalked, glabrous, dark green above and paler below; 

 appearing late in the spring; deciduous. 



FLOWERS. Nearly regular; dioecious; in racemes; calyx 

 tubular, hairy; petals 5, greenish-white; stamens 10; ovary 

 hairy; appearing after the leaves. 



FRUIT. A turgid, woody, short-stalked, red-brown legume 

 4-10 inches long and li^-2 inches wide; containing sugary 

 pulp between the 6-9 seeds. Seed: ovoid, % inch long, with 

 thick bony coat, used as substitute for coffee in early days. 



TWIGS. Very stout; unarmed; coated at first with short, 

 dense, red hairs; roughened by large, pale, conspicuous leaf 

 scars. Winter buds: terminal absent, lateral small, depressed, 

 brown, silky hairy, with 2 in the axil of each leaf. 



BARK. Smooth and brown to gray on limbs; becoming %- 

 1 inch thick, gray, fissured, and with distinctive reflexed scales. 



WOOD. Unimportant; heavy and hard; ring-porous; reddish 

 and closely resembling honey locust; sapwood very thin, white. 



SILVICAL CHARACTERS. Intolerant; fast growing; rare 

 throughout its range; a handsome tree often planted as an 

 ornamental. 



* * * 



Yellowwood 



Cladrastis lutea (Michx.) K. Koch 



This medium-sized tree is rare and unimportant except for 

 occasional use as an ornamental. It is characterized by alter- 

 nate, deciduous, pinnately compound leaves with 5-11 leaflets, 

 each 3-4 inches long, obovate, entire, acute, and yellow-green; 

 by perfect, showy, white, papilionaceous flowers; by a glabrous, 

 flat, short-stalked, linear legume 3-4 inches long containing 

 4-6 flat, brown seeds; by slender, glabrous twigs containing 

 naked lateral buds enclosed in the hollow base of the petiole; 

 and by smooth, thin, gray bark. 



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