The Golden Rain Trees (Koelreuteria paniculata) are spectacular these days, covered with small, orange, Chinese lantern-looking seed pods. Unfortunately the seed pods will lead to thousands more Koelreuteria paniculata in the spring.
The specimen pictured above is in one of our neighbor's front yard. Our many trees in Debary are mostly not blooming yet as they are only 3-5 years old, recently planted to provide some much needed shade.
I often comment that I don't have a lifetime to wait for the plants to mature so I chose for Debary species like Koelreuteria which grow up to 20-feet a year at this latitude. In another year there will be a complete canopy of these trees where I've allowed them to flourish.
Some General Scientific information:
Golden rain tree grows 30 to 40 feet tall with an equal spread, in a broad, somewhat irregular globeshape. Some trees appear vase-shaped. Although it has a reputation for being weak wooded, it is rarely attacked by pests and grows in a wide range of soils, including high pH soils.
From our experience with this species in Deltona and Daytona Beach they have a life-span of about 10 years and reach maturity at 5 years.
Golden rain tree tolerates dryness and casts little shade because of the open growth habit. It makes a good street or parking lot tree, particularly where overhead or soil space is limited, due to its adaptive abilities. The tree grows moderately and bears large panicles of bright yellow flowers in May to July when few other trees bloom. It is not as showy as Koelreuteria bipinnata but is much more cold-tolerant. The seed pods look like brown chinese lanterns and are held on the tree well into the fall.
All Golden rain tree species are in the Soapberry (Sapindaceae) family.
It is thought that none of these species are native to North America though they now occur as far north as New York and as far west as Idaho.
Diseases:
Koelreuteria is subject to few diseases. A canker causes dead and sunken areas on the bark. Coral pink fruiting bodies develop on the diseased bark. Prune out infected branches and fertilize to maintain tree health.
Verticillium wilt attacks Koelreuteria. The disease causes wilting and death of leaves on infected branches. Eventually the entire tree may be killed. Fertilize to stimulate growth. There are no chemical controls.
We lost a couple specimen to verticillium wilt in the past weeks. Interestingly, the wilt only affected individual specimens while leaving adjacent plants unharmed.
RETURNED TO THE GARDEN:
The Alope Sphinx moths and Erinnyis alope worms have returned to the garden after our early frost two weeks ago.
Pictured below is one of the worms that lost his way from the nearby payaya tree, their favorite food source in our gardens.
These guys regularly scare me when they appear attached to my pants or fall out of my morning newspaper.
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