Species profile
Japanese Katsura
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
2,667 on Toronto's streets — 0.39% of the city's catalogued canopy.
🌸 Blooms Apr 10 – Apr 22: inconspicuous tiny red
🍁 Fall colour Oct 5 – Oct 20: orange-peach-pink, leaves smell like caramel
Toronto history — Japanese katsura — Asian origin. Heart-shaped leaves with apricot-peach fall colour that smells of caramel or burnt sugar when fallen. A prized specimen tree in recent plantings.
Cercidiphyllum japonicum, known as the Katsura, is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to China and Japan. It is sometimes called caramel tree for the light caramel smell it emits during leaf fall. It is also sometimes called candyfloss tree because of the scent.
Planting profile (from the City of Toronto)
| Native to | Introduced (Asia) |
| Mature size | Medium, 14m high by 7m wide |
| Growth rate | Medium |
| Sensitivity | Sensitive |
| Best site | Lawns |
| Plants under overhead wires | No |
Where they cluster
| Neighbourhood | Trees |
|---|---|
| Bedford Park-Nortown | 62 |
| East End-Danforth | 56 |
| Lawrence Park South | 56 |
| Stonegate-Queensway | 53 |
| Birchcliffe-Cliffside | 53 |
| Lawrence Park North | 52 |
| Banbury-Don Mills | 50 |
| Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills | 47 |
Notable specimens
- 181 cm DBH at 43 CHESTON RD · view →
- 120 cm DBH at 39 HILLCREST DR · view →
- 110 cm DBH at 31 PRUST AVE · view →
- 95 cm DBH at 36 SIR WILLIAMS LANE · view →
- 94 cm DBH at 19 FAIRFAX CRES · view →
- 87 cm DBH at 20 GREEN LANES · view →
- 86 cm DBH at 111 SANDRINGHAM DR · view →
- 78 cm DBH at 14 CRANLEIGH CRT · view →