Cladrastis kentukea aka Kentucky Yellowwood

Cladrastis kentukea, also known as the Kentucky yellowwood or American yellowwood, is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a broad, rounded crown and smooth gray bark. It is native to the Southeastern United States and has a restricted range from western North Carolina west to eastern Oklahoma and from southern Missouri and Indiana south to central Alabama. The tree is sometimes also called Virgilia. The leaves of Cladrastis kentukea are compound pinnate and 20-30 cm long with 5-11 (mostly 7-9) alternately arranged leaflets. Each leaflet is broad ovate with an acute apex, 6-13 cm long, and 3-7 cm broad, with an entire margin and a thinly to densely hairy underside. In the fall, the leaves turn a mix of yellow, gold, and orange. The fragrant white flowers are produced in Wisteria-like racemes 15-30 cm long and appear in early summer (June in its native region). Flowering is variable from year to year, with heavy flowering every second or third year. The fruit is a pod 5-8 cm long, containing 2-6 seeds. Yellowwood has smooth gray or light brown bark and branchlets that are at first downy but soon become smooth, light yellowish-green and later red-brown, finally dark brown. The wood is yellow to pale brown, heavy, hard, close-grained, and strong. It has a specific gravity of 0.6278 and a weight of cu. ft. of 39.12 lbs. Yellowwood is a native tree with an open, graceful, spreading crown and three seasons of interest. In addition to its beauty, it provides nesting sites for songbirds and high-quality pollen and nectar that attracts bees and other pollinators. Winter buds of yellowwood are four in a group, making a tiny cone and enclosed in the hollow base of the petiole. The calyx is campanulate, five-lobed, and enlarged on the upper side. The papilionaceous corolla has a broad standard that is white and marked on the inner surface with a pale yellow blotch. The wings are oblong, and the keel petals are free. Yellowwood has ten free stamens with thread-like filaments and a pistil with a superior, linear, bright red, hairy ovary bearing a long incurved style. Its legume fruit is smooth, linear-compressed, and tipped with the remnants of the styles, and its seeds are dark brown.