Princess tree
Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 12 m
- wide
- 7.6 m
Paulowniaceae
Also called Royal Paulownia, Empress Tree, Foxglove Tree, Chinese empress tree, Princesstree
Formerly Bignonia tomentosa, Incarvillea tomentosa
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- TreeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- C. & E. China, S. KoreaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 9.1 m to 15 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 6.1 m to 9.1 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Pink, purpleRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -28.9 °C (USDA zone 5a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- Árbol chino de la Emperatriz, Paulonia real, Kiri
- French
- Paulownia impérial, Paulownia, Paulownia tomenteux
- Japanese
- キリ, 桐
- German
- Blauglockenbaum, Kaiser-Paulownie
- Czech
- pavlovnie plstnatá, paulovnie plstnatá
- Chinese
- 毛泡桐, 泡桐叶, 泡桐果
- Russian
- Павловния войлочная
- Polish
- Paulownia Omszona
- Korean
- 참오동나무
- Slovak
- paulovnia plstnatá
- Catalan
- Paulònia
- Dutch
- Anna Paulownaboom
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 2.5
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Paulownia tomentosa (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.