Kentucky Coffee Tree - Gymnocladus dioicus

Features: This tough native technically has the largest leaves of any Illinois tree, though it is not obvious. Each leaf is doubly compound, so there is a stem, with multiple stems growing from it and each of those has many leaflets along it. It has a very sparse branch structure that allows room for them. The only tree of its genus in the US, distantly related to the Honey Locust.

It's common name is either from how its seeds look like coffee beans, or how it was used by early settlers to Kentucky as a coffee substitute. The pods are only produced on female trees, though it is impossible to tell male from female when young. Scientists think the hard seeds may have been dispersed by mammoths and other extinct large mammals.

The spring flowers are pollinated by many native bees and sometimes hummingbirds.

Light: Full to partial sun 

Soil: Moist to medium--adaptable. Does well as a street tree

Height: 30-50 feet. Fast growing when young, then slower

Width: 20-40 feet

Blooms: May-June

See more information and photos at: Illinois Wildflowers and University of Kentucky

Photos from 1. Possibility Place, 2. Illinois Wildflowers, remainder, U of KY