Plant primer: Kentucky coffee tree

Height: 60 to 70 feet

Spread: 40 to 50 feet

Hardiness: 3b

Origin: North America

The Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is a large deciduous tree with bipinnately compound leaves. Small ovate leaflets combine to create one large leaf of 1 to 3 feet long and up to 2 feet wide. The leaves emerge in the spring with a bright coppery pink cast, mature to a dark green, then turn bright yellow in the fall.

The botanical name is derived from the Greek words gymnos (naked), and kladois (branch) and refers to the tree’s rough bark. This tree is dioecious: The female trees produce a thick-skinned seedpod that contains large coffee-beanlike seeds. The seedpods are difficult for small animals to chew; experts suspect that larger beasts such as mastodons and mammoths ate the seedpods.

Young Kentucky coffee trees can be seen on the Community Garden Campus at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

— Barbara Arnold,

Franklin Park Conservatory