Paulownia tomentosa has marvelous press on the Internet. Several Australian and United States companies make claims of extraordinary growth, unbelievable wood values, magnificent beauty; Paulownia, they write, can shade an area in record time, resist insects, feed livestock, and improve the soil component.
Is this just hype, or is the plant truly a "supertree"? Let me introduce you to Royal Paulownia (other names are Empress Tree, princess tree, kawakami). You make up your own mind.
The Empress Tree
Right away you know the tree is very special. The plant's pedigreed and regal names include Empress Tree, Kiri Tree, Sapphire Princess, Royal Paulownia, Princess Tree, and Kawakami. The surrounding mythology abounds with several cultures claiming title to the plant's legends.
Probably the Chinese first linked a tradition with the tree. The oriental Paulownia is planted when a daughter is born. When she marries, the tree is harvested to create a musical instrument, clogs, fine furniture, and they live happily ever after. In actuality, it is a valued wood in the orient and top dollar is paid for its procurement.
Legend also insists that it was named Royal Paulownia in honor of Princess Anna Pavlovnia, daughter of Russia's Czar Paul I. Unlike Paul Harvey, I can't seem to find the rest of the story...
The United States has stands of these trees all along the Eastern Seaboard and through the midwestern states. Paulownia's range is said to have expanded because of the seed pods used in packing shipped cargo from China. Containers were emptied, winds scattered the tiny seeds and a "fast forest" developed.
The tree has been in America since the mid-1800s. It was first "discovered" as a profitable tree in the 1970s by a Japanese timber buyer. This sparked a multi-million dollar export market for the tree. One log is said to have sold for US$20,000.
The wood has been ignored by domestic companies in the United States but utilization studies (which I have not been able to find on the Internet) have been done by several universities, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia. Planting the Paulownia tree, says Fred Wright, Carolina-Pacific International, Inc., is a reaction to the "failure of our domestic forests to meet a growing demand, coupled with man-made crises" which have led to declines of the spotted owl and the red-cockaded woodpecker.
"A Case for Planting Paulownia"
