Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped · Wikimedia Commons

Yellowwood

Scientific name: Cladrastis kentukea

Also called Kentucky yellowwood, American yellowwood.

Cascading wisteria-like white flowers in late spring on a smooth, gray-barked tree that few nurseries grow.

Be first when yellowwood is priced

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.

Ask about this plant Email instead

Share: copy link

Showy flowersFall colorRareWinter interestStreet treeSalt tolerant

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 30–50 ft
USDA zones: 4–8
Growth rate: Medium
Flowers: May
Fruit: Pods, August to September
First crop: 8 to 10 years (first flowers)
Mature spread: 55 ft
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes and rocky ground
Native range: 12 states, north to Illinois, south to Louisiana and west to Oklahoma
List all 12, and the 9 others
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee
Also recorded, not native, in Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
Also recorded, not native, in 9 other states (listed above). See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Native to a handful of limestone valleys from Kentucky to Arkansas, yellowwood is hardy far beyond that range and makes one of the best mid-sized shade trees for a yard. Fragrant flower panicles appear in heavy bloom every two or three years once the tree matures, fall color is clear yellow, and the roots tolerate ordinary soil. It also suits a city street, and in winter the gray bark stands out, smooth on young trunks and pebbly on old ones. Perfect as a patio tree or a front-yard specimen, close enough to smell the bloom.

Size, growth and what to expect

A young yellowwood may not bloom for its first 8 to 10 years, and after that a heavy bloom comes only every 2 or 3 years, with a lighter one between. Yellowwood grows at a medium pace, and our growth estimator models it as a medium tree, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth on an average site. It reaches 30 to 50 feet with a low, spreading crown 40 to 55 feet wide. Left unpruned, it often falls apart after 30 to 40 years.

In May the tree hangs out fragrant white pea flowers in wisteria-like clusters 8 to 14 inches long, and flat papery pods 2½ to 4 inches long follow, each holding four to six seeds. The smooth gray bark looks like a beech's. The name comes from the yellow heartwood, which yields a yellow dye.

It grows wild in a scattered range centered on Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, with outlying stands from Indiana and Illinois to Missouri and Arkansas. Its home is rich, well-drained limestone soil in river valleys and on slopes. It is drought tolerant once established.

How to grow Yellowwood

Yellowwood takes full sun or light shade and ordinary soil that drains, acid or limey. It grows a low, spreading crown as wide as it is tall, so plant it 25 feet from the house and clear of power lines. Set trees 40 feet apart.

Plant a sapling, bare-root or potted, while dormant, in a hole twice the root width and no deeper, root flare at grade, native soil back in, mulch off the trunk, staked only if it flops. Seed has a hard coat: soak it in hot water overnight, chill it damp for three months and sow in spring an inch deep under a mouse screen.

Soak it weekly through the first summer. Rabbits gnaw the smooth bark and deer browse shoots, so guard the trunk and cage the top for three years. Yellowwood forks low and its narrow crotches split in storms, so train one leader early and remove tight-angled branches while small, in midsummer because winter and spring cuts bleed.

Yellowwood carries both male and female parts in each flower, and bees carry the pollen. Small, isolated stands often set few viable seeds, so plant two or more trees from different parents for seed. Seedlings take eight to ten years to flower. Verticillium wilt can kill a limb or a whole tree; cut out any branch that wilts in summer and keep the tree watered. The bark is thin, so avoid mower and trimmer nicks.

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

Sources (10)