[PCA] Question about Gymnocladus dioicus

[Randall, John L]

From: Matt Gocke [mailto:mhgocke at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 10:28 PM
To: Randall, John L
Subject: Re: Question about Gymnocladus dioicus

Question number 1)

Michael Dirr says

Seed ripens in October, but hang on tree through winter; good crops produced alternately or on three year cycles; takes 4 to 8 years from seed before trees fruit.


Question number 2)


http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/kentucky_coffeetree.html says...


Kentucky coffee tree grows on a wide variety of sites and soils. It prefers rich, moist soils in floodplains, terraces, ravines, coves, and lower slopes. Its most common associates include maples, ashes<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/ashes.html>, hackberry<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/hackberry.html>, black walnut<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/black_walnut.html>,butternut<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/butternut.html>, honeylocust<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/honeylocust.html>, and bitternut hickory<http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/iowa_trees/trees/bitternut_hickory.html>. On better sites, its growth rate is moderate (1 to 2 feet per year). Kentucky coffee tree is only moderately tolerant of shade and requires openings for successful regeneration.


It moderately growth rate when young.

Dirr says...

Slow to medium, growing 12 to 14′ over a 10 year period.

Additional thoughts

Does best in gaps. Grows wide and is suggested as a good tree for open spaces. I would think you would want to give each individual some space. That said I have never seen it in the wild so I am not sure how well it does in tighter spacing and with a mix of species.

Hope this helps.

Matt G

Sent from my iPhone


From: native-plants [mailto:native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Snyder, Eric (MNRF)
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 3:20 PM
To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: [PCA] Question about Gymnocladus dioicus

Hi,

I have two questions for anyone who has experience either monitoring or cultivating Kentucky Coffee-Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus):


1.       At approximately what age, or within what age range, do trees become sexually mature?

2.       How far from competing vegetation must a tree be planted in order for it to be considered “free to grow,” i.e. free from competition?

Gymnocladus dioicus is listed as threatened in Ontario, Canada.  The answers provided to the above questions will be used to inform “overall benefit” conditions in an authorization under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act.

Thank you for any insights you can offer.  Kind regards …

Eric

Eric Snyder | Plant Species at Risk Specialist | Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry - Species at Risk Branch
* 2nd Floor South, 300 Water St., Peterborough, Ontario K9J 8M5 | * (705) 755-5645 | 6 (705) 755-5483 | * eric.snyder at ontario.ca<mailto:eric.snyder at ontario.ca> | t www.mnr.gov.on.ca<http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca>

 “If it had been expended solely upon the plants which are grown to please the eye, or which invite us by their nutrimental properties, this laborious research on the part of the ancients would not have been so surprising; but in addition to this, we find them climbing by devious tracts to the very summit of mountains, penetrating to the very heart of wilds and deserts, and searching into every vein and fibre of the earth-and all this, to discover the hidden virtues of every root, the properties of the leaf of every plant, and the various purposes to which they might be applied.” - Gaius Plinius Secundus, c. 77A.D.

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