Yellowwood
Cladrastis lutea
Family Leguminosae

Characteristics:
* Leaves pinnately compound, 8-12", with 5-11 leaflets.
* Leaflets ovate, smooth edge and blunt tip, turning yellow in autumn, 3-4".
* Flowers white, clustered, 12-14".
* Fruits pealike pods, flat, 2-4" with 4-6 seeds.|
* Wood yellow; bark smooth, dark grey-brown.
* Height: Up to 60'.

Natural History:
* Flowers May - June.
* Fruits September - October.
* Habitat: Rich soils.
* Range: Rare and local in parts of southern United States; sometimes spreading from cultivation farther north.
* Originally from China and Japan.

Connections!
* Yellowwood is the only American species in the genus Cladrastis. It was named by the Frenchman Andre Michaux in 1796. Michaux' son, Francois, gathered yellowwood seeds and imported them to France, where descendants of that original tree still grow in the Tuileries today.

* Early Americans boiled chips of yellowwood root to produce a pale yellow dye, and its pale wood was used to make the stocks of rifles.