Paulownia

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paulownia is a genus of between 6-17 species (depending on taxonomic authority) of plants in the monogeneric family Paulowniaceae, related to and sometimes included in the Scrophulariaceae. They are native to much of China, south to northern Laos and Vietnam, and long cultivated elsewhere in eastern Asia, notably in Japan and Korea. They are deciduous trees 12-15 m (40-50 ft) tall, with large leaves 15-40 cm across, arranged in opposite pairs on the stem. The flowers are produced in early spring on panicles 10-30 cm long, with a tubular purple corolla resembling a foxglove flower. The fruit is a dry capsule, containing thousands of minute seeds. The genus, originally Pavlovnia but now usually spelled Paulownia, was named in honour of Queen Anna Pavlovna of The Netherlands (1795-1865), daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia. It is also called "princess tree" for the same reason.