| Scientific Name: | Paulownia tomentosa |
| Common Name: | princess tree, empress tree |
| Family Name: | Paulowniaceae |
| Origin: | S.E. Asia / Japan / China |
| Hardiness Zone: | Zone 5: (-29 to -23 °C) |
| Plant Type: | Tree - deciduous |
| Mature Size: | 10 - 15m x 10 - 15m (height x width) |
| Habit: | Dense, Spreading |
| Form: | Round |
| Texture: | Coarse |
| Landscape Uses: | Specimen plant |
| Exposure: | Full sun, Part sun/part shade, Sheltered |
| Soil or Media: | Well-drained |
| Leaves: | Simple, Opposite, Soft flexible, Pinnate venation, Palmate venation, Pubescent, Tomentose, Ovate, Dentate, Entire, Palmately lobed |
| Flowers: | Thyrse, Yellow, Violet, Apr-May |
| Fruit: | Capsule, Brown, Aug-Sep, (Persistent) |
| Key ID Features: | |
| Leaves opposite, ovate, most blades 12-25(-40)cm long x 10-23(-35)cm wide, base cordate, margins entire or occasionally 5 tooth or with shallow lobes (juvenile foliage), peach fuzz on underside, petioles up to 20cm long; bark has stretch marks; thyrse 20-30(-45)cm long, cymose branches with 3-4 florets, violet-purple, each 5-7 cm wide, appear before leaves; capsules woody, brown, ovate, pointed, 3-4cm long x 2-3cm wide, each with >1000 tiny winged seeds ~2mm long. Winter ID: twigs brown with prominent whitish lenticels, flower buds rounded, fuzzy, most 7-9mm wide in clusters; capsules partially split open lengthwise in half. | |