Friday Fabulous Flower - Maackia

Since there won't be a new blog posted for a couple of days at least, here's a FFF a bit early.  This is the first time this tree has flowered on our campus, a bit of a new addition, and it's sort of a surprise in that TPP was told it wasn't very handsome even in flower.  This is Maackia amurensis, the Amur maackia, quite obviously a legume, and based on all description a very tough tree tolerant of dry, poor soil conditions, and is hardy to zone 3 to boot. While not spectacular like a royal Poinciana, it did catch my eye right away, and not many other trees flower this time of year.  At any rate, it's not a species you see very often outside of botanical gardens and arboreta, but it's worth thinking about if you have a tough place for a flowering tree.  It also might make a good street tree reaching 20-30 feet in height and crown width.