Click on the images help you identify a Kentucky coffeetree.
Form
Large tree, 50 to 70 feet tall, sometimes 100 feet or more, with a trunk diameter of 24 to 36 inches. Open-grown trunks may have 10 to 12 feet clear, with three or four heavy ascending branches that turn slightly outward to form a high, narrow, irregularly rounded crown. In forest conditions, trunks may be clear for 70 feet.
Bark
Dark gray or brown, deeply fissured.
Leaf
Leaves are alternate on the stem, 12 to 36 inches long, doubly compound with 40 to 60 smooth-margined, abruptly pointed leaflets. Color is bluish green, turning yellow in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Fruit is a purplish-brown pod, 6 to 10 inches long, enclosing six or more hard, round, flat, dark reddish-brown seeds separated by a thick layer of inedible, sticky pulp.
Range
Rare. Found in southeastern Minnesota along the Mississippi River Valley to St. Paul, and along the Minnesota River Valley to New Ulm. Shade-intolerant, moderately fast-growing.
Wood uses
Wood is light red to reddish-brown, coarse-grained, and medium hard. Not commercially important but used for railroad ties, fence posts, poles, and construction material. Popular as an ornamental tree.