WHAT TREE IS THIS?

SEED PODS (Google photo)

HUGE, DOUBLE PINATE, COMPOUND LEAF (Google photo)

YOUNG TREE IN AN ASHLAND, WISCONSIN,  LAKEFRONT PARK

Thursday, 8:45 AM.  42 degrees F at the ferry dock, 40 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with occasional light gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy, the humidity 86%.  The barometer stands at 30.05" and has begun to fall.  It looks like moderate temperatures and dry weather for the next few days.

   O.K., horticulture students, time for the pop aquiz. What tree is the rather strange subject above, found growing in an Ashland, Wisconsin, lakefront park?  Some hints: It is a relatively uncommon, but not really rare, large tree native to the temperate forests of the south central Midwest.  It has the largest leaves of any native North American deciduous tree; they are doubly, pinnately compound.  The insignificant flowers produce very large seed pods, which contain large, hard, pea-like seeds.  The lumber is useful but seldom available.  The leaves and raw seeds are poisonous and can kill grazing animals, and the leaves were used by some Native American tribes to stupefy fish and make them easy to catch.  

   Still don't know?  It is a Kentucky coffee tree, now sometimes used as a street and park tree because it has no pests and is quite tough and adaptable.  It has a unique appearance, a nice yellow fall leaf color,  and the large seed pods are oddly decorative.  The roasted seeds of Gymnocladus dioicus in the Pea Family, the Fabaceae, were  used by early settlers as a coffee substitute, but don't try this at home, as not properly prepared they are quite poisonous.  Seeds and other plant parts were also used in Native American and settler medicines.  I also remember it being said in my college botany courses many years ago that the large seeds were used like dice in American Indian gambling games and that accounts for its rather odd distribution, but I have not seen that fact referenced anywhere since.
  Gymnocladus translates from the Greek as "naked branched," which refers to its odd appearing branches, and dioicus translates as "two houses," referring to the fact that the species has separate male and female trees. There are several horticultural selections sometimes available, including male-only trees.
   I think it is a rather fun tree to have around (although not always available from nurseries) and it is useful in increasing species diversity in urban locations, as long as its hazards are recognized.