Koelreuteria paniculata, with the common name Goldenrain tree, is a species of Koelreuteria native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea. It is also sometimes known as China tree, or varnish tree.
It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 17 m tall, with a broad, dome-shaped crown.
The leaves are pinnate, 15–40 cm (rarely to 50 cm) long, with 7-15 leaflets 3–8 cm long, with a deeply serrated margin; the larger leaflets at the midpoint of the leaf are sometimes themselves pinnate but the leaves are not consistently fully bipinnate as in the related Koelreuteria bipinnata.
The flowers are yellow, with four petals, growing in large terminal panicles 20–40 cm long. The fruit is a three-parted inflated bladderlike pod 3–6 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, green ripening orange to pink in autumn, containing several dark brown to black seeds 5–8 mm diameter. There are two varieties:
- Koelreuteria paniculata var. paniculata. Northern China and Korea. Leaves single-pinnate.
- Koelreuteria paniculata var. apiculata (Rehder & E.H.Wilson) Rehder (syn. K. apiculata). Western China (Sichuan), intergrading with var. paniculata in central China. Leaves with larger leaflets commonly bipinnate.
Read more about Koelreuteria Paniculata: Cultivation