KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE

You might notice the fruits of the Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) on your walk abouts.  The tree produces pods up to 10 inches long that contain black ¾ inch seeds.  The pods fall to the ground in winter.  Native Americans and early settlers roasted and ground seeds to make a “coffee”.  I use “coffee” in quotations because it doesn’t have caffeine - BUMMER.  Regrettably, the seeds are very toxic prior to roasting and shouldn’t be eaten fresh from the tree.  This, and the presence of a tough, leathery seed pod is peculiar.  How do these seeds disperse?  They are too heavy to be wind dispersers.  The pods are hard to chew and apparently slightly laxative.  Even if you gnawed your way through, you’d be rewarded by toxic seeds.  So, what then?  One hypothesis is that the seeds were browsed by mammoths and mastodons that ate the pods and pooped the seeds out.  Now, the Kentucky Coffee Tree is considered an ornamental tree for gardens and parks because it tolerates harsh weather conditions.  I might need to get my hands on a mastodon poop plant for my yard.