Tree of the Week: Golden Medallion

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Good morning. In our weekly timeout from the madness of the housing market, we visit our tree-loving friend Pieter Severynen, who picks our Tree of the Week:

Cassia leptophylla – Golden Medallion Tree

‘Lots of trees are in bloom right now. The golden medallion tree, which came here from Brazil, is an attractive, easygoing, to 25 feet tall, 30 feet wide, almost evergreen, smaller tree. In summer the 8-inch-long, exuberant golden yellow flower spikes cover the dark green foliage consisting of compound leaves divided in small leaflet pairs (leaflets don’t have a bud in the axil or ‘armpit’; leaves do). The tree is not demanding, grows fast and uses little water. It has a tendency to weep, meaning that the branches hang down.’

‘Just as with little humans, early training is absolutely necessary if you want a well-behaved adult specimen, but happily enough, trees need a lot less attention. Without pruning this tree can look like a sprawling shrub. Proper training means pruning to a single trunk, having the branches located away from each other and high enough on the stem that you can walk underneath, cutting the long branches back by some 20% to strengthen them, and removing the long unsightly seedpods.’

Thanks, Pieter
E-mail Pieter: PISeve@earthlink.net
Photo Credit: CalState.Edu