From guyclark@socket.net Fri Nov 19 20:32:59 1999 Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 21:22:21 -0600 From: Guy Clark Reply-To: permaculture To: permaculture Subject: Re: Paulownia [ The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] Actually Paulownia is in the Scrophulariaceae family, but is sometimes placed in Bignoniaceae family. If you think about the flowers, the Scrophulariaceae placement makes sense. It is funny, I had in my mind that it was an N fixer also. Perhaps its similarity to Catalpa, or the way it springs back when it is inevitably killed back to the ground in Zone 5. It has been pushed by some as a cash cow because of its rapid growth to harvestable timber size. Not reliably hardy in most Zone 5 climates. At the very least, do not expect it to flower reliably. May be good for pollarding or coppicing. Very dense shade may be useful in killing out grass and other weeds. Its wood is apparently prized by the Japanese for making everything from rice bowls to musical instruments to air shipping crates to coffins. Named for Czar Paul's daughter Anna Pavlovna who married Prince Willem of the Netherlands. Introduced from China to U.S. in 1834 and escaped from cultivation from New York to Georgia. All of this according to Michael Dirr's "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" Namaste', Guy Clark --- You are currently subscribed to permaculture as: london@metalab.unc.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-permaculture-75156P@franklin.oit.unc.edu