This feature will appear in the blog throughout the year. Many plants have fallen out of favor over the years, but for the sake of biodiversity and landscape interest they deserve to be resurrected. Today’s featured plant is:
Koelreuteria paniculata commonly called the Golden Rain Tree.
This is a small, open branching, irregularly shaped, deciduous tree with a rounded crown which typically grows 30 to 40 feet tall and as wide. Leaves emerge pinkish-bronze to purplish in spring, mature to a bright green in summer and turn yellow in the fall, color quality variable. Bright yellow flowers appear in early summer in long (12-15 inches), terminal panicles.
Flowers give way to interesting, brown, papery seed capsules which somewhat resemble Chinese lanterns. This tree is a native to China, Korea and Japan. Golden Rain tree is easily grown in average, dry to medium, well drained soil in full sun. It adapts to a wide range of soils and tolerates drought and city air pollutants. Unfortunately, this plant may have been listed by some cities or towns as an invasive species, colonizing in hedgerows and scrub farmland. It does not, however, exhibit this trait in its native habitat, and there is little empirical data to support the idea that it is as invasive a species as, say, box elder or gray dogwood, though it is listed as invasive in Kentucky, Maryland and Pennsylvania. But don’t let that deter you from owning one. Check your local city or town to see if it is on their list if you are concerned.