Golden Rain Tree ~ Friday's Flower

The Golden rain tree is an ideal tree for the Front Range.  Apparently in the South, the tree is a fast grower and can be invasive.  In Colorado, with our short growing season and cold winters, this tree is a slow grower.  Moving into our house in October 1999, the tree was a small, 4' spindly specimen.  It's taken this long to reach it's mature height of 30'.  Another factor may be that the tree has weak wood, and limbs tend to break under a heavy spring snow, which does happen occasionally.  I look at that as nature's way of pruning.

There are not many trees blooming in mid summer, which makes the
deciduous Rain Tree really stand out with it's clusters of yellow flowers.  

After a few weeks the fern-like flowers fall off, making way for lime green pods, resembling Chinese paper lanterns, to grow.  The decorative pods are prettiest when they change from green to salmon colored, later in the fall.

The Golden Rain Tree likes full sun and makes a lovely patio shade tree.