American Yellowwood
Other names
Virgilia
Growth habit
Tree
Perennation
Long-lived polycarpic perennial
Location
Source of plant
RareFIND Nursery, Roslyn Nursery
Description
‘Perkins Pink’ (synonymous with ‘Rosea’) is an uncommon pink-flowered cultivar that was originally discovered in the 1930s at the Perkins Institute for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts. Pinnately compound leaves (usually with 7-11 leaflets) open as yellowish green, turn bright green in summer and then turn yellow in fall. Intensely fragrant, wisteria-like, pink flowers in large, drooping, terminal panicles (10-15” long) will cover a mature tree in late spring. Profuse bloom may occur only once every 2 or 3 years however. New trees may not bloom for the first 8-10 years. Bloom is similar in appearance to that of black locust (Robinia). Flowers give way to flat seed pods (2.5-4” long) that mature in September-October. Species was formerly called Cladrastus lutea.
USDA Hardiness Zone
4
Special characteristics
fragrance, bark