“Kentucky coffeetree is also referred to as the ‘nicker-tree'”– Fun Facts
Kentucky Coffeetree (Harding, 2024a)
Kentucky Coffeetree was first described as Guilandina dioica by Carolus von Linnaeus (1753). It was changed to Gymnocladus dioicus by Karl Koch and Heinrich Emil (Koch, 1869). The tree has also been known as Gymnocladus canadensis (Lee, 1976).
The leaves of Kentucky Coffeetree look somewhat similar to those of the Chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach) and Goldenrain Tree (Koelruteria paniculata). However, Chinaberry’s leaflets may be lobed, whereas Kentucky Coffee Tree never has lobed leaflets. Also, Chinaberry’s fruits are yellow and round, not pods. Goldenrain tree may be pinnately or bipinnately compound, and the leaflets have large, coarse teeth along the margins whereas Kentucky Coffeetree has entire margins. Goldenrain tree fruit is a unique papery capsule that looks like a paper lantern (Kershner, 2008) whereas Kentucky Coffeetree has brown, flattened pods.
The Kentucky coffeetree is also referred to as the “nicker-tree”, a name that also refers to Caesalpinia bonduc, a tropical shrub.
‘Nicker’ refers to the seeds of these plants, which are hard and round (nicker-tree, 2024).
Native
Introduced
This tree is native to woodlands in the eastern United States. It grows in areas with frequent flooding, such as riverbanks (Lindsey, 1961). Even though it has a wide distribution, it is rarely encountered in the wild because its seeds are hard to germinate and disperse. Because of its large, hardy seed pods and the fact that it often cannot self-pollinate, it is suspected to have evolved to have its seeds dispersed by the megafauna of the Pleistocene and Miocene. This makes it an evolutionary anachronism: a species that adapted to a different environment and no longer fits in its current habitat (Zaya, 2009).
According to the IUCN red list, the Kentucky Coffeetree is now considered vulnerable because of how fragmented its range is as well as habitat destruction and overharvesting (Carrero, 2020).
