Japanese Pagoda Tree - Sophora japonica Regent

These sound like a great tree but I am not finding much on the site about them. From what I know about the tree it sounds like the grow fast and they are one of the largest nitrogen fixers out there. This seems like a tree that would do great supporting several smaller fruit trees in a guild. Have any of you planted any of these? Do they come with any surprises, like oh they are great but they have 5 inch thorns...Any info you have would be great.

I love sophoras, very ornamental and a good attractor for pollinator insects early in the season. The seeds are quite poisonous, at least I know that sophora secundiflora is. That actually would be my preferred species over japanese depending on circumstance. I'm mainly partial to the secundifloras because they are native and the seeds make the necklaces for the leaders of the peyote ceremonies, look like big red beads, and quite poisonous.resistant to rats?

Bob Dobbs wrote:I love sophoras, very ornamental and a good attractor for pollinator insects early in the season. The seeds are quite poisonous, at least I know that sophora secundiflora is. That actually would be my preferred species over japanese depending on circumstance. I'm mainly partial to the secundifloras because they are native and the seeds make the necklaces for the leaders of the peyote ceremonies, look like big red beads, and quite poisonous.resistant to rats?

Beautiful looking tree. It looks like it only gets about 25ft tall though.

I'm looking and it seems that the Japanese Pagoda tree has been given a new genus, Styphnolobium Japonica, and is said not to fix nitrogen. Any comments on this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styphnolobium_japonicum

Matt Hunter wrote:I'm looking and it seems that the Japanese Pagoda tree has been given a new genus, Styphnolobium Japonica, and is said not to fix nitrogen. Any comments on this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styphnolobium_japonicum

Interesting find. I have about 3 started now. They seem less appealing if that is the case. Please let me know if you find any more info.

we have a pagoda tree in our front yard. it was recommended to us because of its drought tolerance and because it is quick growing.

we watered in a few times the first year and havent really touched it since and it seems to be doing good.
its not very big yet (9-10ft) but we have noticed that it has recently started to take off.

as i understand the one we have is not a N-fixer, but thats ok.

Hi,
It's been tough for me to figure out of the Japanese Pagoda Tree is really a nitrogen fixer. The Wikipedia article on this species says that it used to be considered to be part of the Sophora genus, but, as mentioned above, it's listed as part of the Styphnolobium genus by Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styphnolobium_japonicum ) which apparently doesn't fix N.

Does anyone with experience with the Japanese Pagoda tree know if this is a good candidate as a N fixer for a plant guild in an 8b (moving towards 9a...) plant guild in the Southwest (Dordogne) area of France?

Thanks!
Hugh