Cladrastis is a genus of nine species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, eight native to eastern Asia, and one to southeastern North America.

Cladrastis kentukea, commonly called American yellowwood, is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree typically growing 10 to 15 metres tall, exceptionally to 27 metres tall, with a broad, rounded crown and smooth grey bark. During early summer, the tree puts on a magnificent display of sweetly scented, white flowers on racemes similar in appearance to the flowers of the much-loved Wisteria. These fragrant flowers will attract birds, butterflies and bees to you garden. The number of flowers borne during the flowering season varies from year to year with heavy flowering occurring every second or third year. The tree gets its common name Yellowwood from the yellow to pale brown colour of its timber which is a heavy, hard, close-grained and strong wood that is used for specialist furniture, gunstocks and decorative woodturning. One of the rarest trees of eastern North America, Cladrastis kentukea is found on the limestone cliffs of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, but it is hardy at the north to USDA zone 4 meaning it can withstand temperature as low as -34°C. It is widely grown as an ornamental tree for its attractive flowers and is well adapted to the urban setting. It thrives in full sunlight and in well-drained soil, tolerates high pH soils as well as acid situations.