Part of
☕︎ coffeetree genus Gymnocladus
in
🥜︎ legume / bean / pea family Fabaceae
in
order Fabales.
Native to 🇺🇸 USA Midwest and Upper South.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48),
🗺 map (North America, Central America), 
🗺 map (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Its range used to much larger, now much reduced, due to a long story …
☕︎ Coffeetrees have large tough seedpods, which remain on the tree until early in growing season. The seedpods contain sweet pulp and large seeds, with a thick waterproof coating that needs to be cut or abraded before 🌱︎ germination. This seed protection probably evolved with and to be spread by
🐘︎ mammoth genus Mammuthus.
After the
🚶︎ Holocene extinction
removed large herbivorous megafauna, poor seed-dispersal caused the plant's range to decline to floodplains in the 🇺🇸 USA Midwest and Upper South.
[1]
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Although the raw seeds are
☠︎ toxic
to 👥︎ humans, after roasting they are not; early European settlers in Kentucky used these roasted beans as a coffee substitute, resulting in the tree's common name.
[1]
Gymnocladus hosts caterpillars of 4 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
Most legumes (but not this species) cooperate with a bacterium that fixes
atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants and animals.
Often grows in clonal colonies
[2]
— look around for other stems!
It is now planted occasionally as a ⛱ shade tree.
Planting info (SW Michigan).
References
[1]
"The Trees That Miss The Mammoths." American Forests. .
Accessed .
[2]
"Clonal colony." Wikipedia.
Accessed .