The Kentucky Coffeetree is a very interesting and handsome tree with a good coarse texture and a bold, macho winter form. Its native range is from central New York to spots in western Maryland & West Virginia to central Tennessee to central Oklahoma & eastern Kansas to southern Minnesota to southern Michigan & Ohio from floodplains to lower upland slopes. It has huge bipinnately compound leaves to 3 feet long by 2 feet wide with many leaflets to 3 inches long each. The foliage is slow to leaf out in the spring and develops a good golden yellow fall color. The gray to gray-brown bark is very rough with scaly ridges curling outward. Small greenish-white to white flowers with 4 to 5 petals bloom in late May to early June. Normally dioecious (separate male & female trees) with the female flower clusters borne on 8 to 12 inch pyramidal panicle clusters while male flowers are on clusters about 3 to 4 inches long. Heavy, stocky, leathery, brown, 5 to 10 inch long pods ripen on the female trees in October and remain most of winter. Early pioneers in Kentucky used to brew the seeds as a coffee substitute. This species is not really common anywhere in its range; just found as a group here and there. Some megafauna as mastodons and mammoths must have eaten the pods and passed the seed around, so it probably was more common in very ancient times. I see it occasionally planted in arboretums, estates, campuses, business parks, in street parkways, and professional landscapes; not a lot in the average yard. This wonderful shade tree should be used more. There are several male cultivars available that are podless. It is sold at larger, diverse, conventional nurseries and at native plant nurseries.