Tour Detail

Background
History

This tree produces yellow blossoms about ½’’ across held in clusters on a stalk about 12-18’’ long. It blooms in early June through July. The tree has a unique, dark green compound leave reaching 6-15’’ long and made up of 7-15 coarsely toothed leaflets that turn a pale yellow color in fall. The goldenrain tree’s fruit are especially interesting. They look like little three-sided lanterns containing black seeds inside.

The goldenrain tree is native to China, Japan and Korea. In China, it was commonly planted to mark the graves of important officials and it has been often found on temple grounds throughout other parts of Asia. The tree was introduced to Europe by Jesuit missionary, Pierre d’Incarville in 1747. It reached America in 1809 when Thomas Jefferson first germinated seeds sent to him by a French associate. It has since become a popular landscape tree worldwide.