Paulownia kawakamii

The sapphire dragon tree is a deciduous tree in the paulownia or Paulowniaceae family and is native to China (eastern and the island of Taiwan) and Japan.

It grows up to 25 m tall and has leaves and round leaf scars that look similar to those of Indian bean tree (Catalpa speciosa).

• Leaves are simple, opposite, heart-shaped (and sometimes 5-lobed) and quite large, 15–40cm long, green above and paler below.
• Flower buds develop over winter as clusters of oval, light brown "pods" up to 2 cm in diameter, on stocks, in the spring producing fragrant flowers before the leaves start to show.
• Flowers are in showy panicles, 10–30 cm long, with tubular purple corollas 4–6 cm long.
• Fruit is light-green panicles of grape-like capsules, developing by late fall into dry egg-shaped capsules 3–4 cm long containing numerous tiny seeds with surrounding wings (like small elm seeds), about 3 mm in diameter.
• Branches are covered with lenticels; winter leaf scars are round with circles of vascular bundles inside.