The Catalog

Araucaria araucana

The dinosaurs' favorite tree. Still alive. Still weaponized.

Chilopsis linearis

Heat. Drought. Come at it.

Zanthoxylum clava-herculis

Chew a leaf. Your mouth goes numb. That's a feature.

Cercis canadensis 'JN2'

The redbud your nursery won't carry.

Paulownia tomentosa

Fastest-growing tree on earth. Lavender flowers before the leaves. Controversial.

Davidia involucrata

Two huge white bracts hang from every flower. It looks like doves in a tree.

Brachychiton rupestris

The trunk is a giant water bottle. The shape is genuinely alien.

Vitex agnus-castus

Blue-purple spikes in the dead of summer when nothing else is blooming.

Luma apiculata

The bark glows orange and white like burning wood. Evergreen. Bulletproof.

Adansonia digitata

Stores its own water. Lives 2,000 years. Unforgettable.

Adansonia grandidieri

The most photographed tree in Africa. Cylindrical trunk, ten feet across. Madagascar only.

Adansonia gregorii

Africa's baobab made it to Australia. Shorter, fatter, tougher.

Adansonia za

Madagascar's most common baobab. Orange blooms. Cylindrical and ancient.

Adansonia rubrostipa

The compact baobab. Warty reddish bark. Fits where others won't.

Dracaena cinnabari

Bleeds red. Shaped like an umbrella. Grows on an island that looks like Mars.

Adenium obesum

Swollen caudex. Blazing pink flowers. Thrives in conditions that kill everything else.

Dendrosicyos socotranus

The only tree-form cucumber plant on Earth. Found on one island. Nowhere else.

Ficus benghalensis

Aerial roots drop from the branches and become new trunks. It colonizes itself.

Ficus macrophylla

Buttress roots the size of walls. Canopy spreads 100 feet. Nothing competes.

Hura crepitans

Seed pods explode at 160 mph. Trunk covered in spines. Toxic sap. Absolute menace.

Couroupita guianensis

Flowers erupt directly from the trunk. Fruit weighs 5 pounds. Sacred in India.

Kigelia africana

Grows 2-foot sausages. Bat-pollinated. Sacred across sub-Saharan Africa.

Jacaranda mimosifolia

The entire tree turns purple. For weeks. In your front yard.

Ceiba speciosa

Trunk covered in spines. Pink flowers the size of your hand. Absolutely unhinged.

Brachychiton acerifolius

Drops all its leaves. Then turns completely red. No warning.

Callistemon viminalis

Weeping branches packed with crimson spikes. Hummingbirds lose their minds.

Aloidendron dichotomum

San people made arrow quivers from the branches. It grows in the Namibian desert.

Samanea saman

Closes its leaves at night and before rain. Umbrella crown. Covers half an acre.

Eucalyptus deglupta

The bark peels to reveal green, blue, purple, orange, and maroon. All at once.

Eucalyptus pauciflora

The cold-hardiest eucalyptus on Earth. Survives Zone 6. Twisted white sculptural bark.

Corymbia citriodora

Crush a leaf. Your hands smell like a cocktail. Ghost-white trunk. 100 feet tall.

Wollemia nobilis

Discovered alive in 1994. Was known only from fossils. You can grow one.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Known only from fossils until 1944. Still standing.

Pinus pinea

The Roman umbrella pine. Produces actual pine nuts. Grows in Texas.

Corypha umbraculifera

Waits 60 years to bloom once. Produces the largest flower structure on Earth. Then dies.

Quercus laceyi

The Hill Country's best-kept secret.

Quercus acutissima

From Japan. Grows fast. Makes acorns nobody ignores.

Quercus suber

The tree that made wine possible. Grows in Texas.

Magnolia 'Elizabeth' / 'Butterflies' / 'Yellow Bird'

Magnolias aren't just pink. The yellow ones are rarer and better.

Prunus avium 'Minnie Royal'

Half the chill hours. All the cherry. Plant with Royal Lee.

Prunus avium 'Royal Lee'

Pairs with Minnie Royal. Together they produce in Zone 8.

Prunus avium 'Lapins'

Self-fertile. 400 hours. One tree is enough.

Prunus persica 'FlordaPrince'

150 chill hours. One of the most reliable warm-climate peaches.

Prunus persica 'TropicBeauty'

150 hours. Good size. Good flavor. Does what it says.

Prunus persica 'TropicSweet'

100 chill hours. The lowest-chill peach worth growing.

Prunus persica 'Earligrande'

200 hours. Big fruit. Ripens early. Widely available.

Prunus salicina 'Gulf Gold'

100 chill hours. Yellow-gold Japanese plum. Zone 8–10.

Prunus salicina 'Gulf Ruby'

150 hours. Dark red skin, red flesh. The Gulf Series workhorse.

Prunus salicina 'Methley'

Self-fertile. 250 hours. Reliable from Zone 5 to 9.

Prunus dulcis 'All-In-One'

Self-fertile. 300–400 chill hours. The only almond you need for Zone 7–9.

Prunus dulcis 'Ne Plus Ultra'

250–300 hours. Soft-shell. Large nut. One of the oldest low-chill almonds.

Prunus salicina × avium 'Sweet Treat'

Self-fertile. 200 hours. The plum-cherry hybrid that actually works.

Prunus salicina × avium 'Candy Heart'

The sweetest of the pluerries. Needs a pollenizer. Worth it.

Prunus avium

The wild sweet cherry of Europe. Big tree, black fruit, spectacular spring bloom.

Prunus mahaleb

St. Lucie cherry. Fragrant blooms, black fruit, handles drought and limestone.

Prunus serotina var. eximia

The limestone cliff cherry. Tough as the rock it grows on.

Cornus mas

Ukraine's national fruit tree. Older than Rome. Sour, tart, and completely overlooked.

Capsicum baccatum

More cold-hardy than you think. Perennial in Zone 8. Tree-sized by year three.