June Tree of the Month: Gold Medallion Tree

Cassia leptophylla

Gold Medallion Tree is certainly one of the most spectacular of all flowering trees.  In summer, eye-catching clusters of yellow blooms appear at the ends of its leafy branches – every cluster looks like an enormous bouquet of 30 to 50 individual flowers!

Beginning in June and extending through August, brilliantly yellow flowers (each 2- to 3-inches in diameter) emerge throughout the canopy in clusters of terminal racemes (each cluster is 8- to 10-inches wide).  This fabulous floral display can last a month – or two! 

Another outstanding feature is its lush foliage.  The long leaves (up to 18-inches in length) are pinnately compound (twice divided).  Each leaf has 9 to 20 pairs of leaflets.  Each leaflet (2½-inches long and 1½-inch wide) is shiny green above and pale green below.

Gold Medallion Tree was first planted in the Los Angeles Arboretum in 1958.  Since then, it has become an increasingly popular landscape tree in the Santa Barbara community – and for good reason.  It does spectacularly well in our Mediterranean climate.

This is a fast growing, small- to medium-sized (up to 25-feet high and 30-feet wide), semi-evergreen tree, which carries low branches and a rounded crown.

The attractive reddish-brown bark peels in roughened vertical strips.  The furrows between the strips expose a brighter reddish bark underneath.

After the flowers are pollinated, they develop extraordinarily large (often up to 2 feet in length and 1-inch across), four-sided, woody seed pods that dangle from the branches.  When young, the pods are green – with age, they turn a shiny dark brown.  They can persist in the tree through the next growing season. 

Gold Medallion Tree is in the Fabaceae (pea or bean) plant family, so its pods contain bean-like seeds.  Fair warning: the seeds contain toxins and, therefore, are not edible.

The botanical name of Gold Medallion Tree is Cassia leptophylla.  The genus name, Cassia, is the from the Greek word “kassia”, which is their name for plants in the Fabaceae family that provide senna leaves and pods used in traditional medicine.  The specific epithet, leptophylla, comes from a combination of the Greek words “leptos” (meaning “narrow”) and “phyllon” (meaning “leaf”), referring to its narrow leaflets.

Gold Medallion Tree is native to the forests of southeastern Brazil.  Despite its tropical origins, once established here, it is surprisingly drought tolerant, cold hardy to 25°F, and thrives in our non-tropical climate.  It benefits from occasional deep watering, especially during prolonged droughts.  Although it can tolerate many soil types, it prefers well-drained sandy loam soil; heavy clay soils will require good drainage, to help prevent root disease.

Happily, it is a low maintenance tree with no serious disease or insect problems.  It does require occasional pruning to maintain a uniform shape and to remove dead or damaged branches.   

It is easy to propagate from seeds.  Seeds should be soaked for at least 24 hours, to ensure faster and more uniform germination. 

Gold Medallion Tree is understandably appreciated as an excellent ornamental, because it is a small, low-maintenance, problem-free, tree that bears long-lasting dazzling flowers and unique seed pods.  It adds beauty and interest on city streets, in home gardens, in public parks, and in commercial landscape – as either an individual specimen tree or in a grouping of multiples for dramatic effect.

These lovely trees cannot be missed when in bloom all around our town.  Look for nice specimens in Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens (near the corner of Micheltorena Street and Santa Barbara Street), in MacKenzie Park, in Spencer Adams Park, on State Street (in the 800 and 1000 blocks and below Gutierrez Street), on Gutierrez Street at Olive Street, on Calle Almonte, on Calle Linares, and on the 1400 Block of Carpinteria Street. A mature specimen stands in the 100 block of South San Marcos Road.

Tree-of-the-Month articles are sponsored by Santa Barbara Beautiful, whose many missions include the increase of public awareness and appreciation of Santa Barbara’s many outstanding trees and, in a long-time partnership with the City Parks & Recreation Department, the funding and planting of trees along the City’s streets.

Those who wish to honor a special someone can do so with an attractive commemorative marker that will be installed at the base of an existing street tree in the City of Santa Barbara.  Because Santa Barbara Beautiful has participated in the planting to date of over 14,000 street trees, there are plenty of trees from which to choose!  Application forms are available on the Santa Barbara Beautiful website, www.sbbeautiful.org.  This website also contains an archive of all previously published Tree-of-the-Month articles, including photos.

Article and Photos by David Gress