Re: Paulownia

[jko@xprt.net (Jeff Owens)]

Guy Clark wrote:
>Actually Paulownia is in the Scrophulariaceae family, but is sometimes
>placed in Bignoniaceae family. If you think about the flowers, the
>Scrophulariaceae placement makes sense. It is funny, I had in my mind that
>it was an N fixer also.

I planted Paulownia on a bare mud hill (zone 7) along with 50
other trees to see what it would do.  It grew slowly and is
now surrounded by large red alder seedlings, douglas fir,
blackberries, chestnuts, buart nuts, and a few apples.  From
this i concluded it is probably a heavy feeder and only grows
fast when nitrogen is present (good soil?).  To some extent
this is true of Douglas Fir although it is beginning to look
like soil fungi may be another key.  Anyway, this zone 7 site
seems better suited to other trees, and indicates local trials
of various trees might be a good idea.

 ----
jeff owens, jko@xprt.net, http://www.xprt.net/~jko
     underground house, solar power, self-reliance, edible landscape
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