Paulownia tomentosa, common names princess tree, empress tree, or foxglove-tree, is a deciduous hardwood tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to central and western China. It is an extremely fast-growing tree with seeds that disperse readily, and is a persistent exotic invasive species in North America, where it has undergone naturalisation in large areas of the Eastern US.
Princess tree
![Royal Paulownia blossoms.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9d6a0e4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1200x668+0+0/resize/880x490!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fwltr%2Ffiles%2F201803%2Froyal_paulownia-crop.jpg)
Famartin [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons