Kentucky Coffee Tree 



541 



IV. KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE 



GENUS GYMNOCLADUS LAMARCK 



Species Gymnocladus dioica (Linnaeus) Koch 



Giiilandina dioica Linnaeus. Gymnocladus canadensis Lamarck. 



HIS large tree, also called Coffee nut, Coffee bean, Nicker tree, and 

 Mahogany, occurs from southern Ontario and Minnesota southward 

 to Tennessee and the Indian Territor}^, growing in rich deep soil. It 

 is often seen in cultivation in the northeastern States, and in Europe. 

 It attains a maximum height of about 35 meters, with a trunk diameter of 9 dm. 

 The trunk is usually short and forks into several nearly upright branches. The 

 dark brown bark is 2 or 3 cm. thick, deeply fissured into rough scaly ridges. 

 The twigs are stout, pithy, and slightly 

 hairy at first, becoming brown and marked 

 by large leaf scars. The leaves are de- 

 ciduous, bipinnate, 3 to 9 dm. long and 

 4 to 6 dm. wide, with deciduous leaf-Kke 

 stipules I cm. long; the first and often 

 the second pair of pinnae consist of en- 

 tire leaflets, usually twice the size of the 

 others; the pinnae have 3 to 7 pairs of 

 leaflets with or without a terminal one; 

 leaflets ovate to oval, 3 to 7 cm. long, 

 taper-pointed, rounded at the base, en- 

 tire and short-stalked, thin, more or less 

 woolly and pinkish when unfolding, dark 

 green and shining above, pale green be- 

 neath. The flowers are polygambus, 

 re^-ular, in terminal racemes or panicles, 

 the staminate clusters 7 to 10 cm. long, 

 the pistillate 2.5 to 3 dm. long; the calyx 

 is (elongated, tubular, 10- ribbed and 



Fig. 500. Kentucky Coffee Tree. 



haiiy, about i cm. long, its 5 lobes linear-lanceolate, 5 to 6 mm. long; petals 5, 

 nea'ly white, oblong, slightly keeled, somewhat longer than the calyx-lobes; stamens 

 ID, shorter than the petals, the filaments awl-shaped and hairy, the anthers large, 

 bright orange; ovary sessile, hairy; style short; stigma oblique. The fruit is a 

 large woody legume, in clusters of 3 to 5, remaining on the branches all winter; it 

 is flattish, oblong, 1.5 to 2.5 dm. long, 3.5 to 5 cm. wide, slightly curved, abruptly 

 pointed, unevenly rounded into a stout stalk, dark red-brown and somewhat glau- 

 cous, the margins thickened ; a dark, sweetish pulp surrounds the seeds, which are 

 ovoid, a little flattened, 2 cm. long, hard, dark brown and dull, the endosperm thin. 

 Tie wood is rather soft, strong, coarse-grained, light brown; its specific gravity 



