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Kentucky Coffeetree

Scientific name: Gymnocladus dioicus

Also called coffee tree, coffeenut.

Bold, coarse and nearly indestructible: a rare native shade tree for tough sites and cold climates.

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Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May and October to November.

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Drought tolerantRareWildlife valueWinter interestStreet treeErosion controlSalt tolerant

Type: Large tree
Mature height: 60–80 ft
USDA zones: 3–8
Growth rate: Medium
Flowers: May to June
Fruit: Pods, September to October
First crop: 20 to 30 years
Mature spread: 55 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests and rich moist slopes
Native range: 26 states, north and west to North Dakota and south to Texas
List all 26
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
Also recorded, not native, in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Coffeetree has enormous doubly compound leaves, a picturesque winter silhouette and no serious pests. It tolerates drought, alkaline soil, road salt and urban compaction, which makes it one of the best street trees for the Midwest and Northeast. Female trees carry thick pods; the raw seeds are toxic, so it is not a coffee substitute despite the name. On mine spoils it has been planted to stabilize and reclaim the soil. Perfect for a lawn, where its open crown lets grass grow right up to the trunk.

Size, growth and what to expect

At maturity a Kentucky coffeetree stands 60 to 80 feet with a crown 40 to 55 feet wide, and the trunk on a big tree runs 2 to 3 feet through. It grows fast when young and slows with age. Our growth estimator models it at roughly a foot and a half a year in youth on an average site, the rate it assumes for a medium tree. Trees can live to about 100 years or more.

Male and female flowers grow on separate trees, and only the females carry pods. Trees begin bearing at 20 to 30 years and then fruit yearly. The pods are thick and woody, 5 to 10 inches long, with 4 to 8 dark seeds about three quarters of an inch long, and they hang on unopened until late winter. Early settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee used the seeds as a coffee substitute, which is where the name comes from.

It grows wild in rich bottomlands from New York, Pennsylvania, southern Ontario and Minnesota south to eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

How to grow Kentucky Coffeetree

Coffeetree needs full sun and open sky. Average to dry soil of any texture suits it. In shade it leans and thins. At full size, keep it 35 feet from the house and never beneath a wire. Set trees about 50 feet apart.

Set it out while dormant. Saplings come bare-root or in deep pots, and coarse roots move best young. Dig two to three times the root width, no deeper, hold the flare at grade, and refill with the soil you dug. Mulch a wide ring clear of the bark, and stake only if the tree will not stand. Seed has a stony coat. File through it, soak until the seeds swell, and sow an inch deep under screen.

Water weekly the first two summers. Guard the trunk against voles and rabbits, and cage against deer rub for three winters. Prune in winter while it is young to hold one leader.

Kentucky coffeetree is dioecious, and a seedling will not show which it is until it flowers, years from now. Females drop thick pods whose raw seed is poisonous, so pick them up where children or stock reach. It leafs out very late, drops early, and suckers now and then into the lawn.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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