at the apex with the remaining dried up style sometimes still attached. (F) The capsule remains on the persistent brown calyx were they can last on the tree through the rest of the year before turning brown and woody and loculicidal dehiscence reveals up to 2000 small winged seeds stacked tightly inside. (G) The tiny seeds have lateral wings that gradually increase in length around the seed. The ventral and dorsal side of the seed are flat. This wing shape on the seeds is another distinguishing characteristic of Paulownia from the rest of the Lamiales. (A) The new buds, enclosed by the early brown fuzzy calyx, are visible in late summer to early fall and wait dormant, alongside the brown seed capsules, till spring. Fossil record Paulownia once occurred in North America, with fossilized leaves found in Tertiary strata of Ellensburg Canyon of Washington state. Paulownia macrofossils have been recovered from the late Zanclean stage of the Pliocene sites in Pocapaglia, Italy and Paulownia caucasica macrofossils have been recovered from strata of the Serravallian stage of the Miocene in Georgia in the Caucasus region. It is believed that the climate then would have been suitable for the genus across the whole northern hemisphere. Uses In China, it is popular for roadside planting and as an ornamental tree. Paulownia needs much light and does not like high water tables. As a forestry crop Paulownia are exacting in their requirements, performing well only in very well draining soil, with summer rainfall or availability of irrigation water. Paulownia grown on plantations generally has widely spaced growth rings, meaning that it is soft and of little value; wood with close growth rings is harder and of higher value. Paulownia is extremely fast growing; up to 20 feet in one year when young. Some species of plantation Paulownia can be harvested for saw timber in as little as five years. Once the trees are harvested, they regenerate from their existing root systems, earning them the name of the "Phoenix tree". Paulownia is also used in Chinese agroforestry systems because it grows fast, its wood is light but strong, its flowers are rich in nectar, its leaves make good fodder for farm animals, it is deep-rooting, and it is late-leafing and its canopy is quite sparse so that crops below it get both light enough to grow and shelter. Paulownia is known in Japanese as ,