Golden Rain Tree (LA Urban Forest Program)

Golden Rain Tree

Koelreuteria paniculata

Summary ¹⁰

Koelreuteria paniculata is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea. Common names include goldenrain tree,pride of India,China tree, or varnish tree.

Description ¹¹

Trees or shrubs, deciduous. Bark grayish brown to black, stout, fissured when dry; lenticels gray to dark brown, small; branches tuberculate, appressed pubescent or glabrous with axes and petioles. Leaves fascicled on young branches, spreading, pinnate, imperfectly bipinnate, or sometimes bipinnate, to 50 cm; leaflets (7-)11-18 (terminal one sometimes connate with uppermost pair below middle), sessile or very shortly petiolate, opposite or alternate, ovate or broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (3-)5-10 × 3-6 cm, papery, abaxially barbate on vein axils, sometimes tomentose, or densely pale yellow pubescent, adaxially scattered appressed pubescent on midvein, base obtuse to subtruncate, apex acute or shortly acuminate, margin irregularly obtusely serrate, teeth mucronate at tips, sometimes teeth near base sparse and fissured, or pinnately lobed. Thyrses 25-40 cm, densely pilosulose, branches spreading and long, cymes on last branches 3-6-flowered, densely arranged and capitate; bracts narrowly lanceolate, scabrous-hairy. Flowers pale yellow, slightly fragrant. Pedicels 2.5-5 mm. Sepals ovate, margin glandular ciliate, erose. Petals 4, reflexed when flowering, linear-oblong, 5-9 mm, claw 1-2.5 mm, villous; scale yellow at first, orange when flowering, irregularly fissured, tuberculate, appressed hairy. Stamens 8, 7-9 mm in male flowers, 4-5 mm in female ones; filaments densely spreading white villous at lower half. Disk oblique, with obtuse lobes. Ovary trigonous, glabrous except on ridges; rudimentary ovary densely hispidulous. Capsules conical, 4-6 cm, 3-ridged, apex acuminate; carpels ovoid, abaxially reticulate veined, adaxially smooth and slightly shiny. Seeds subglobose, 6-8 mm in diam. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Description ¹²

This tree is usually 30-40' tall at maturity (rarely up to 60' tall), consisting of a short trunk and a wide crown with ascending to widely spreading branches. The crown is usually somewhat open and irregular. On mature trees, the trunk is up to 1¼' across, consisting of flattened gray ridges and shallow reddish brown furrows. The twigs are light gray to reddish brown, more or less terete, with scattered small lenticels. Young shoots are light green, terete, and glabrous to minutely pubescent. Alternate compound leaves about ¾-1½' long occur along the twigs and young shoots. These leaves are either single-pinnate or partially bipinnate. Individual leaflets are usually 1½-4" long and 1-2½" across; they are lanceolate to ovate and either coarsely toothed or shallowly cleft. On bipinnate leaves, there are 1-2 pairs of secondary leaflets below some of the primary leaflets. These secondary leaflets are similar to the primary leaflets, except they are smaller in size and more narrow in shape. The upper leaflet surface is medium green and glabrous, while the lower leaflet surface is light green and either glabrous or minutely pubescent along the central vein. The leaflets usually have short petiolules (up to 1/8" long), although some leaflets may be sessile. The petiolules are light green to light yellow-green and glabrous to minutely pubescent. The central stalks (rachises) of the compound leaves are light green to red and glabrous to minutely pubescent. Twigs occasionally terminate in panicles of flowers about ¾-1½' long and at least one-half as much across. Each flower is about ½" across, consisting of 4 yellow petals, 4 green sepals, 8 stamens, and a pistil with a single style. While a flower is in bloom, the petals are widely spreading or recurved and they are narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate in shape. The sepals are lanceolate in shape and much shorter than the petals. At the base of each petal, there is a pair of small scale-like appendages that are yellow to orange-red. On the stamens, the lower halves of their filaments have long hairs. Both the style and the stamens are strongly exerted. On some trees, some of the flowers may be unisexual. The pedicels of the flowers are green and either glabrous or minutely pubescent. The peduncle and lateral stalks of each panicle are also green and either glabrous or minutely pubescent. The blooming period occurs during the summer (usually mid- to late summer in Illinois) for about 2-4 weeks. The flowers are mildly fragrant. Fertile flowers are replaced by inflated seedpods that become 1½-2½" long at maturity. These seedpods are obcordoid and strongly 3-lobed in shape; immature seedpods are light green to bright red, while mature seedpods are light brown to blackish brown. Each seedpod contains up to 3 seeds (1 seed per lobe). Individual seeds are globoid or globoid-ovoid in shape and 6-8 mm. in length. Because the seedpods are light-weight and inflated, they can be blown about by the wind or float on water. The root system is woody. This tree spreads by reseeding itself.

Fuentes y créditos

(c) John Hilty, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/photos/gold_rain2.jpg
(c) Tim Waters, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/61416618@N00/262599770
(c) Bere Mata, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), subido por Bere Mata
(c) Steven J. Baskauf, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/15512
(c) John Hilty, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/photos/gold_rain3.jpg
(c) Steven J. Baskauf, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/13058
(c) Steven J. Baskauf, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/13062
(c) Mike Dillon, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), subido por Mike Dillon
(c) Yadira, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Yadira
Adaptado por earthwatchtrees del trabajo de (c) Wikipedia, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koelreuteria_paniculata
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4971894
(c) John Hilty, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/29450035