| Family： | Fabaceae |
| Genus： | Styphnolobium |
| Species： | S. japonicum |
| Common names： | Chinese scholar tree, Japanese pagoda tree |
| ZBAS | 6 (0 to 10) Zach’s bee attraction score |
This plant is a large tree, endemic to China but named as “from Japan” most likely because the botanist giving the name first identified in Japan. In fact it is named as “National locust” (Guo huai) in China. There used to be one tree right in front of the Natural Science Building at MSU, which was cut down. But now there is still one near the edge of parking lot at the intersection of Psychology road and Farm Lane, and another one near the MSU Union. This one is blooming as of today but I have seen the one near the union blooming 2 weeks ago. It is not as attractive to honey bees as black locust but it is blooming time is important in Michigan for honey bees. I saw many bumble bees and carpenter bees today but the flowers are near the top of the 30 ft tall tree and it was difficult to see if honey bees were there. The flowers have a slight greenish-tint and I could not smell it today. The tree that was cut used to drop many flowers on the ground and many bees, including some honey bees will work on the flowers that were dropped. Thus this flower also tends to “flow” near its end, similar to black locust.
The young leaves of this plant are used to make tea in China and seed pots are used in traditional medicine.
Those photos are taken August 29th 2003, from the MSU campus, using an old point and shoot camera (Nikon Coolpix 990). I swear I have other photos and even remember taking pictures of bees foraging on the fallen flowers but today I spent a good 2 hours and could not find it. But the good news is I finally found my old photo of honey bees foraging on small leaf plantain!
1. A honey bee foraging on the Chinese scholar tree flowers. Flowers are white with a greenish tint. Young seed pods can be seen, suggesting a long and not synchronized blooming time for a single tree. 
2. A honey bee foraging on the same flower but taken in China (Beijing), Aug 7, 2007. 
3. A carpenter bee also foraging on this flower. The flowers are not larger than black locust, so I am intrigued why more large bees (resin bees, carpenter bees, and bumble bes) than honey bees. 
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