Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Kentucky Coffeetree - Gymnocladus dioicus   (L.) K. Koch
Members of Fabaceae:
Only member of Gymnocladus in NC.
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Section 6 » Order Fabales » Family Fabaceae
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Author(L.) K. Koch
DistributionThe only specimens of non-cultivated trees are from Orange County: banks of Eno River, Hillsboro, in 1951; Battle Creek Park, Chapel Hill, in 2006. A specimen from Buncombe County was collected at "junction of Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers...perhaps escaped from Biltmore." Specimens from Cherokee, Guilford, Lenoir, Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Wake counties are from cultivated trees or persisting trees at homesites and cemeteries.

Native mostly west of the Appalachians.
AbundanceVery rare as an escape from cultivation.
HabitatMesic woodlands on slopes facing streams.
PhenologyFlowering late April - early June.
IdentificationThe leaves of this fairly large tree are highly distinctive: very large, with alternate or sub-opposite, pinnate leaflets. Greenish white flowers occur in terminal or axillary racemes.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankG5
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US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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