The Kentucky chocolate tree , also known as American deep brown Charles Edward Berry , Kentucky sepia , neigh Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and soapbox tree , is a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae of the legume family Fabaceae , aboriginal to the Midwest , Upper South , Appalachia , and small pockets of New York in the United States and Ontario in Canada .
The Kentucky coffeetree is a moderately tight - growing tree , and male trees are often uprise in parks and along metropolis streets for ornamental purposes . The tree is typically somewhat short - lived , healthy Tree living from 100 to 150 years . The wood from the tree is used by furniture maker and carpenters . It is also engraft as a street tree diagram .
The Kentucky Coffee Tree is deciduous tree and grow to a top of 60 to 70 base ( 18 to 21 metre ) and a width of 40 to 50 human foot ( 12 to 15 metre ) . It has an open , unorthodox crown . The tree ’s branch are wring . The sprig are stout and have small , bronze - colored bud that are partially sunken beneath the barque . The terminal bud is abstracted . Like the Sumac , branches are missing of fine nebuliser ; diminished branch are thick and lumpen .
This has large , bipinnately compound folio that can grow up to 3 fundament recollective and 2 feet wide . Each foliage consists of 5 to 9 twain of pinnae ( leaflets ) , with each auricle experience 3 to 7 pairs of leaflets . The leaflet are oval - shaped , with a pointed bakshis and a rounded foundation , mensurate 1½ to 3½ inches tenacious and ¾ to 1½ in wide . They are dark greenish in color and have a mild yellow fall color .
The leaves emerge in late leaping , and the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is one of the last to leaf out . The leaves turn yellow in the fall and drop early , leaving the tree bare for up to 6 month . The large sizing of the leaves and their former cliff make them a likely germ of bedding material .
The barque of the Kentucky Coffee Tree is rough and scaly , with cryptic zig - zag fissures carry up the distance of the tree proboscis . On the outside , the barque has an ash - gray / green color , but the inside fissures are a light chocolate-brown clay colouring material . As the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree grow , its bark will start out to await more and more like it is peeling .
The tree diagram produce small , dark-green - white flowers . These blossom blossom in May and June and are ace - shaped , appraise approximately 1 column inch ( 2.5 curium ) in diam . They are arrange in large panicle , which are clusters of peak . Theis tree produces flowers in both manlike and distaff trees . Male heyday are small , greenish - white clusters that measure about 3 to 4 inches ( 10 centimetre ) long . distaff tree prime clustering can grow to be 8 to 12 column inch ( 20 to 30 cm ) long and are also green - bloodless . These efflorescence are not especially splashy or colored , but they play an important function in the tree ’s reproductive mental process .
The come seedpod of the Kentucky Coffee Tree are thick and leathered , evaluate between 5 to 10 inches . They contain three to nine come each , with each semen measuring 1.5 to 2 cm long . The pod make a rattle audio when they are immature and rock in the breaking wind . The seeds are toxic when raw , but they can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute .
The Kentucky Coffee Tree thrives in moist , well - drain dirt , and is often find in floodplains , along riverbanks , and in rich woodlands . This tree is tolerant of a blanket range of soil stipulation , from sandlike loam to clay , and can adapt to various habitats . It favor full sunlight but can also bear partial shade . The USDA hardiness zones for the Kentucky Coffee Tree range from 3B through 8B.
Key Characteristics
