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Rome Area Writers

“Mystery Tree”

By Bill Barker
Text Box: I first ran into the word paradigm while participating in a leaders course offered by the local Chamber of Commerce. This word, which is a fancy way of saying the existing system under which something operates, was particularly fascinating when combined with the word shift, a paradigm shift. This would be the situation that occurred when an existing system changed for some reason. Some examples are mechanical watches to quartz watches, the advent of the Internet, etc. According to the people talking about this, the trick is to recognize a paradigm shift before anyone else does. If you were able to do this you would have an opportunity to make a substantial fortune. This tale is about the gradual recognition of a true paradigm shift. In the late ‘70s I was living in Trion, GA. The Walking Track Park in that town had an unusual tree (to me at least). In the early spring this tree was filled with large purple blooms before any leaves appeared. Later on, large green leaves appeared, and where the flowers were became large seedpods. This tree was not very tall, 20 to 30 feet, and was similar in appearance to a Chinaberry tree. I asked several local residents if they knew what kind of tree this was. The only person who ventured a guess said it was a Cottonwood tree. Since I was born and raised in Oklahoma and was quite familiar with a Cottonwood, I knew that I was dealing with a true mystery tree. The mystery was not cleared up for about two years. In that span of time I found that the tree was quite common, particularly on the roadsides, and in the higher elevations of the State they were quite large, over 100 feet tall, and, in some sections of the State, served as ornamental trees in yards. Then in 1976 the mystery cleared up to some degree. I was visiting the Russell Cave National Monument near Stephenson Alabama. In their bookshop they had a tree identity book. The tree was in the book. It was a Royal Paulownia. It originally came from China. It was discovered for the Western World by a Christian missionary named Paul. The reason the tree was designated as royal was because at one time it was highly favored by a Chinese Empress and at that time was only grown in the Forbidden City of Beijing. It originally came to this country as an ornamental tree but fell out of favor when it was discovered that the tree had a most unpleasant odor when blooming, similar to bad breath. The wide distribution of the tree, especially along the roadside, was because the lightweight seeds were used to pack Chinese imports. The information would normally have satisfied my curiosity and would be the end of this story—a junk tree hanging around the landscape, smelling bad, a real nuisance, not quite on a par with kudzu but in the same category, certainly nothing to qualify as a vaunted paradigm shift. Then in the middle ‘80s the plot thickened considerably. I was reading my most valuable source of esoteric information, The National Enquirer, when this headline caught my eye. “Thieves Are Stealing American’s Most Valuable Tree!” That tree turned out to be none other than the Royal Paulownia. It seems that blight had wiped out this tree in Japan, much like we had lost our Chestnut trees in this country. Thieves were cruising the Skyline Drive in Virginia, when the trees grew large and tall, cutting them down and smuggling them to Japan. It was stated they were getting 20 to 30 thousand dollars per tree. Whey were they so valuable to Japan? Turns out that is the favored wood for the hope chests of Japanese Brides. The wood has several properties that make it so. It is very light, similar to balsa wood, but also very strong. The most unusual characteristic of the wood is it shrinks equally vertically and horizontally, thus eliminating cracks. The wood is also quite beautiful with an unusual growth ring, which resembles and electrocardiogram track. It is normally a light blonde but takes stain well and evenly. Now comes the paradigm shift. The Royal Paulownia has become a recommended planting in the Southeast to replace pines, peanuts, vegetables, and tobacco. Last Spring I was driving the back roads of the middle part of Georgia. Guess what. I saw two Paulownia Plantations. They were in full bloom and gorgeous. Now we come to the final pea in this dish and the full revelation of the Royal Paulownia as a true paradigm shift. Guess who’s growing them now—none other than our own venerable, former President of the United States, Mr. Jimmy Carter. He wrote an article about it in the August 30, 2000, edition of the Georgia Market Bulletin. The real proof in the pudding that the Royal Paulownia is a genuine paradigm shift is this simple fact. The durned tree has its very own website: