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''Cladrastis kentukea'', the Kentucky yellowwood or American yellowwood (syn. ''C. lutea'', ''C. tinctoria''), is a species of ''Cladrastis'' native to the Southeastern United States, with a restricted range from western North Carolina west to eastern Oklahoma, and from southern Missouri and Indiana south to central Alabama. Also the tree is sometimes called Virgilia. ==Description== ''Cladrastis kentukea'' is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree typically growing tall, exceptionally to tall, with a broad, rounded crown and smooth gray bark. The leaves are compound pinnate, 20-30 cm long, with 5-11 (mostly 7-9) alternately arranged leaflets, each leaflet 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 flowers are fragrant, white, produced in ''Wisteria''-like racemes 15-30 cm long. Flowering is in early summer (June in its native region), and 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. * Bark: Smooth gray, or light brown. Branchlets at first downy, but soon become smooth, light yellowish green; later red brown, finally dark brown. * Wood: Yellow to pale brown; heavy, hard, close-grained and strong. Sp. gr., 0.6278; weight of cu. ft., 39.12 lbs. * Winter buds: Four in a group, making a tiny cone and inclosed in the hollow base of the petiole. * Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, eight to twelve inches long, main stem stout, enlarged at base. Leaflets seven to eleven, broadly oval, three to four inches long. Wedge-shaped at base, entire, acute, terminal leaflets rhomboid-ovate. Feather-veined, midrib and primary veins prominent, grooved above, light yellow beneath. They come out the bud pale green, downy; when full grown are dark green above, pale beneath. In autumn they turn a bright clear yellow. * Flowers: June. Perfect, papilionaceous, white, borne in drooping terminal panicles twelve to fourteen inches long, five to six inches broad, slightly fragrant. * Calyx: Campanulate, five-lobed, enlarged on the upper side. * Corolla: Papilinaceous; standard broad, white, marked on the inner surface with a pale yellow blotch; wings oblong; keel petals free. * Stamens: Ten, free; filaments thread-like. * Pistil: Ovary superior, linear, bright red, hairy, bearing a long incurved style. * Fruit: Legume, smooth, linear-compressed, tipped with the remnants of the styles. Seeds four to six, dark brown.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cladrastis kentukea」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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