So there I was earlier this week, on the way to see a client in Wellesley, MA, and I passed this huge colorful streetside show:

Trees with colorful flowers? Think about it: How many of them bloom early in the Spring? All those pink cherries. Those pink or yellow magnolias. Rosy-pink "redbuds"? Those lavender paulownias?


And then, the dogwoods come out, and so all the trees thereafter have white flowers only? Stewartia, catalpa, fringe tree, franklinia. Think about it: A tree that blooms later than May and doesn't have white flowers?


Only two, I think: Mimosa (pink blossoms, ugh) and the other one here on that Wellesley streetscape: Goldenrain tree.  Ugh, what a sticky-sweet name, and way too similar to yet another early-Spring yellow-flowered tree (Golden-chain tree, laburnum) plus a climbing rose (Golden Showers).


Let's flip over into the Latin:Kohlreuteria paniculata. Thank you, Mr. Kohlreuter whoever you were. "Paniculata" means that it has big panicles of flowers. Does it ever:

I had never gotten this close to the flowers before—get a load of my grimy man-of-the-earth fingernail!—so I was surprised to see the orange-red flare at the base of the petals.  The pollen is orange-red too—nice coordination!—and the petals are folded back to expose it completely.


Kohlreuterias in my experience are fool-proof as long as they're planted up a slope, even a tiny one.  They lose their confidence if surface water doesn't drain right away.
Sun and heat are welcome, and the trees are drought-proof too.   So tough they can be used as street trees.


We'll take another look at kohreuterias later in the season: As if these unique flowers weren't enough, they mature to colorful inflated pods by August.


In the Fall we'll confirm if the tree gets good Fall foliage.  The branching and bark are very satisfying in the Winter too.  A four-season tree then?  Very possible, and very essential anywhere (Zone 5 - 9) it's hardy.