What is a Kentucky coffee tree?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

December 11, 2003

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The Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica (L.) C. Koch) is a member of the Caesalpiniaceae, a family closely allied to the Fabaceae, the legumes. It is native to eastern North America. Its closest relative, the soap tree (Gymnocladus chinensis Baillon) is native to eastern Asia.

Kentucky coffee tree seeds have waterproof seed coats two millimeters thick. The seeds are in dark pods and retained on the tree through the winter months. It is thought that the alternate heating (black body absorption of sunlight) during the day and freezing at night
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scarifies the seed coat allowing germination in the spring. ("Seed Germination", Ross Koning, Eastern Connecticut State University)

The Kentucky coffee tree is one of the last trees to leaf-out in spring. The leaves are large, twice pinnate, and have an even number of leaflets. It is considered a fast growing tree up to the first 18 meters (60 feet). Kentucky coffee trees can grow up to 30 meters (100 feet) with a trunk diameter of a meter (3 feet). For a fast growing tree, the coarsely grained wood is durable. Fence posts made of the wood have been known to last for 50 to 80 years. ("Gymnocladus dioica", Arboretum, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia)

Beside the durability of the wood, the tree apparently supplied an important insecticide on farms. In 1892, Charles F. Millspaugh cited an article from The American Agriculturalist which recommended the leaves to kill flies. "Though this locality is infested, like Egypt, with a plague of flies, we have never suffered any serious annoyance from them....For ten years we have used the bruised leaves, sprinkled with molasses water, as a fly-poison. It attracts swarms of the noisome insects, and is sure death to them." (American Medicinal Plants, Charles F. Millspaugh, 1892, reprinted 1974, Dover Publications)

By legend, the seeds were roasted, ground, and used to brew a coffee substitute, hence the name "coffee tree". (Raw seeds are toxic.) But any "coffee" made from its seeds is bitter and does not taste anything like coffee. An unknown forester wrote in the early 1900s that it is not something he would ever sample a second time and he doubted anyone else would either.

The Kemper Center for Home Gardening, Missouri Botanical Garden has photographs of the leaf of the Kentucky coffee tree and the bark. This is an interesting tree for large lots. To learn more about the cultivation of the tree and view the photographs, click on the link:

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A872

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