380 TREES IN" WINTER 



KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE 

 Coffee Nut, Coffee Bean, Nicker Tree, Mahogany. 



Gymnocladus dioica (L.) Koch. 

 G. canadensis Lam. 



HABIT — A medium sized tree 30-60 ft. in height, trunk generally soon 

 dividing into 3 or 4 slightly spreading limbs or less frequently with a 

 continuous trunk, forming a narrow obovate head with thick branchlets 

 devoid of spray; the large stout pods often remaining on tree through- 

 out the winter. 



BARK — Dark brown, characteristically roughened with thin tortuous 

 recurved scale-like ridges which are distinct even upon comparatively 

 young branches. 



TAVIGS — Very stout, more or less contorted, blunt, brown or slightly 

 greenish, generally white-crusted, smooth or often velvety-downy. 

 LENTICELS — rather numerous, large, generally more conspicuous on 

 second year's growth. PITH — wide, salmon-pink to brown. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, large, pale, raised, 

 broadly heart-shaped. STIPULE-SCARS — absent. BUNDLE-SCARS— 

 large, raised, generally 3-5. 



BUDS — Terminal bud absent, lateral buds small, bronze, silky, downy, 

 partially sunken, scarcely projecting beyond the surface of the twig, 

 surrounded by an incurved downy rim of the bark; axillary bud in the 

 depression at top of leaf-scar, one or sometimes 2 superposed buds pres- 

 ent. BUD-SCALES — sometimes 2 lateral scales visible. 



FRUIT — A reddish-brown, large, broad, flat, oblong, abruptly pointed 

 pod, 4-10 inches long by li/^-2 inches wide, frequently remaining un- 

 opened on tree during winter, generally somewhat larger than shown 

 in the photograph. Seed, dark brown, flattish. 



C03IPARIS0NS — A superficial glance at the habit of the Kentucky 

 Coffee Tree might lead one to mistake its stout branchlets for those of 

 the Ailanthus. Its curious narrow ridged bark, however, should at 

 once prevent any confusion between the two trees. The silky bronze 

 superposed buds partially sunken in downy dimples of the bark in 

 connection with the stout twigs and salmon-colored pith are sufl^cient 

 characters to distinguish this tree from all other forms. 



DISTRIBUTION — Not native in New England but frequently cultivated 

 as an ornamental tree; grows wild in rich deep soil from central New 

 York and southern Minnesota southward to Tennessee and Oklahoma. 



WOOD — Heavy, though not hard, strong, coarse-grained, very durable 

 in contact with soil, rich light brown tinged with red, with thin lighter 

 colored sapwood of 5-6 layers of annual growth; it takes a fine polish 

 and is occasionally used in cabinet-making and for fence-posts, rails 

 and in construction. Its seeds were formerly used as a substitute 

 for coffee. 



