Here are three possibilities:

• Amelanchier canadensis
• Magnolia virginiana
• Sassafras albidum

Sounds like a challenge. My mother is 81, loves impatiens and generally anything tidy and floriferous, just can't really see the beauty in most native plants. I suspect she would be rather defensive if I ever said that such-and-such a tree is invasive. It's like saying "the approach to gardening you've had your whole life has been wrong".

However, it might help to tell your client that Paulownia tomentosa is listed as a "severe threat" by the South Carolina Exotic Pest Council:

http://www.se-eppc.org/southcarolina/SCEPPC_LIST2014finalOct.pdf

They have a specific page for Paulownia that you could perhaps print to help make your point:

http://www.se-eppc.org/southcarolina/Publications/PauloniaTomentosaArticleSCNLA.pdf

Mimosa, Albizia julibrissin, is also on the SCEPC invasive list, although it's one category down: "significant threat".

Catalpa!

Catalpa looks like a Paulovnia too.

Adam,

There is a Paulownia Plantation very near you. It is on Hwy 6 between St. Matthews and Santee. I have driven by it many times. Here is an article I found on Google. http://thetandd.com/lifestyles/oh-paulownia/article_eb0907af-08c4-55f9-b857-2bb4a6074919.html

Interesting to read any material promoting the tree when all I have seen thus far is negative articles. I will call the family named in that article to see about acquiring a B&B. Thanks!

Funny that there is an American Paulownia Association. I couldn't find a website for that plantation (Mizzell's Green Acres) near Santee, but it appears they're getting farm subsidies:

http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A09092521

Though less recently, so maybe your B&B idea has merit.

I don't really think it so odd that there would be groups of enthusiasts for this or the other native or non-native plant type. We do get into our plants, don't we? For example, I'm a huge fan of well-grown Norway spruce, and have, only somewhat jokingly, pondered starting some kind of Wisconsin Norway spruce society or some such. This fits in my other pocket, not the one where I keep all the native plant business. And sometimes, the two can and do fit together. So, the initial impetus that got us into plants in the first place means we can be seduced by a variety of the world's offerings. Once a species is known to be problematic in some way, usually to do with its invasiveness, sure, that puts a new spin on things. But it simply does not mean the plant is of no interest or value. This is how I see it, anyway.

+oM

I have a friend who will remain nameless, who has worked in nature preserves and is HIGHLY educated, but cut his teeth planting privet on his Parents central Texas ranch as a Teenager. He got them out of a mail order catalog back in the late early 60's. He is still chasing down the burgeoning progeny. We need some things to keep us humble.

Paulownia tree has some interesting characteristics that make it an interesting wood to work with in woodworking. B The planting of a known invasive in a plantation is scary.

Yeah, I do realize the inconsistencies of some of what I say around here. So, to me, it's a bit like the folks doing big plantations of dawn redwood. That tree-often touted as "native" to N. America long ago, is an interesting plant, period. So, as long as somebody's not ripping down old-growth forest to plant their dawn redwoods, or taking out the last bit of tallgrass prairie in Illinois to plant Pawlonias, I think it all fits together.......more or less. Let's face it, none of us really knows where all this vegetation business is going. I think it safe to say we should not be encouraging the use of buckthorn or Callery pear, but some of these things are still a bit outside all that, at least in my worldview. And too, who's to say that in the very longest view possible, humankind won't be seen as just another dispersal agent, spreading species hither and yon? I don't know.+oM