Cladrastis kentukea
| Cladrastis kentukea | |
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| Kentucky yellowwood shoot with flowers | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Genus: | Cladrastis |
| Species: | C. kentukea |
| Binomial name | |
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Cladrastis kentukea (Dum.Cours.) Rudd (1971) |
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| Natural range of Cladrastis kentukea | |
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| Close-up of natural range of Cladrastis kentukea | |
| Synonyms | |
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Cladrastis kentukea, the Kentucky yellowwood or American yellowwood (syn. C. lutea, C. tinctoria), is a species of Cladrastis native to the Southeastern United States, with a restricted range from western North Carolina west to eastern Oklahoma, and from southern Missouri and Indiana south to central Alabama. Also the tree is sometimes called Virgilia.
Cladrastis kentukea is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree typically growing 10–15 metres (33–49 ft) tall, exceptionally to 27 metres (89 ft) tall, with a broad, rounded crown and smooth gray bark. The leaves are compound pinnate, 20-30 cm long, with 5-11 (mostly 7-9) alternately arranged leaflets, each leaflet broad ovate with an acute apex, 6-13 cm long and 3-7 cm broad, with an entire margin and a thinly to densely hairy underside. In the fall, the leaves turn a mix of yellow, gold, and orange.
The flowers are fragrant, white, produced in Wisteria-like racemes 15-30 cm long. Flowering is in early summer (June in its native region), and is variable from year to year, with heavy flowering every second or third year. The fruit is a pod 5-8 cm long, containing 2-6 seeds.
One of the rarest trees of eastern North America. Found principally on the limestone cliffs of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, but it is hardy at the north to zone 4.
The largest specimen known is at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, 22 m tall and 2.2 m trunk diameter; the tallest known is a slender tree 27 m tall but only 0.55 m trunk diameter, at Plott Cove Research Natural Area, Georgia (Spongberg & Ma 1997; Eastern Native Trees Society).
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Wikipedia