KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE (Gymnocladus dioicus, K. Koch). 75 to 100 feet. A narrow, round-topped tree, with stout, thornless twigs. Buds half-buried, above prominent, pale, broadly heart-shaped leaf scars. Bark gray, deeply furrowed between scaly ridges; often reddish. Wood light brown, soft, heavy, coarse, durable, used for fencing. Leaves twice com pound, 2 to 3 feet long, the stout, branching leaf stalk bear ing 5 to 9 pine' with 6 to 14 leaflets set opposite, silky hoary when they open, becoming smooth, turning yellow at last. Leaflets ovate, acute, thin, shining, dark green, 2 to 21 inches long. Flowers in June, dicecious, regular, greenish
white, hairy: staminate racemes 3 to 4 inches long, lower pedicels branched; pistillate racemes 10 to 12 inches long, pedicels stout, hairy, long. Fruit a pod, stout, thick-walled, purple, 6 to 10 inches long, 2 inches wide, filled with sweetish, gummy pulp, around a row of hard globular seeds 1 inch in diameter. Dist.: Rich soil, New York to Minnesota and Nebraska; south into Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Fine shade tree.