It's not always easy to find a good looking tree that'll tolerate city conditions. This year's top
candidate, chosen by the Society of Municipal Arborists, is the Kentucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus), one of my all-time favorites as well.
Nina Bassuk of Cornell University's Urban Horticulture Institute said it transforms from an "ugly duckling" into a "gorgeous, well-balanced, strongly branched tree at 5-inch caliper and beyond." She also noted it's "wonderful yellow fall color."
Bill Lawrence, the retired manager of Forestry & Horticulture for the city of Ann Arbor, MI, said the tree requires very little maintenance and it's "quite striking in winter" because of the "gothic appearance of its limb structure."
The tree has lovely, dark green compound leaves that take on a bluish tinge in summer. The large seed pods ripen in October, but hang on the tree through winter. Early settlers in Kentucky used the seeds as a substitute for coffee, hence the name. Kentucky Coffee Tree gets about 60-75 feet tall and 40 feet wide at maturity. It grows best in rich, moist soil in full but is adaptable to many conditions.
(drawing: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database/Britton, N.L.and A. Brown,1913. Illustrated flora of the northern states and Canada. Vol.2: 340)
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