Paulownia (Paulowniaceae) is one of the world’s fastest growing trees. Originally introduced from Asia to Europe in the 17th century, its wood is one of the lightest, while keeping high flexibility and stability. The fast growth, lightweight and stability make it an ideal wood for regenerative composite constructions (a wood core sandwiched by fiber belts, such as from hemp), like skis, surfboards, orthopedic splines, or electric car chassis. MVI experiments with Paulownia trees on our test plantation on 1500m asl, to understand its growth rate, resilience to frost, snow and hail, and to storms. Paulownia could well become another interesting economic “crop” for mountain valleys. Together with hemp, one would then have the main materials for regenerative composite materials, and a new valuable land use for peripheral and mountainous areas.

We experiment with the resilience of this tree species, amongst the fastest growing trees in the world, with an exceptional weight-stability ratio of its wood, and thus being perfectly tuned to be used for light weight composite materials (such as skis), in combination with hemp fibers.