2. CATALPA Scop.
Trees, with stout terete branchlets, without a terminal bud, minute globose axillary buds nearly immersed in the bark and covered by numerous scales, the inner accrescent, thick pith, thin scaly bark, soft light-colored wood very durable in contact with the soil, and fibrous roots. Leaves opposite or in verticels of 3, involute in the bud, entire or lobed, oblong-ovate, often cordate, long-petiolate, deciduous. Flowers on slender bracteolate pedicels, in terminal compound trichotomously branched panicles or corymbs, with linear-lanceolate deciduous bracts and bractlets; calyx membranaceous, subglobose, closed and apiculate in the bud, in anthesis splitting nearly to the base into 2 broad-ovate entire pointed apiculate lobes; corolla thin, variously marked and spotted on the inner surface, inserted on the nearly obsolete disk, the tube broad, campanulate, occasionally furnished on the upper side near the base with an external lobed appendage, and oblique and enlarged above into a broad limb, with spreading lips undulate on the margin, the posterior 2-parted, the anterior deeply 3-lobed; stamens and staminodia inserted near the base of the corolla; stamens 2, anterior, included or slightly exserted; filaments flattened, arcuate; anthers oblong, carried to the rear of the corolla and face to face on either side of the stigma by a half turn of the filaments near their base, the cells divergent in anthesis; staminodia 3, free, filiform, minute or rudimentary; ovary 2-celled, sessile on the hypogynous nearly obsolete disk, abruptly contracted into an elongated filiform style divided at apex into 2 stigmatic lobes exserted above the anthers; ovules inserted in many series on a central placenta. Fruit an elongated subterete capsule tapering from the middle to the ends, persistent on the branches during the winter, ultimately splitting into 2 valves. Seeds numerous, compressed, oblong, inserted in 2—4 ranks near the margin of the flat or more or less thickened woody septum free from the walls of the capsule; seed-coat thin, light brown or silvery gray, longitudinally veined, produced into broad lateral wings notched at base of the seed and divided at their narrowed or rounded ends into tufts of long coarse white hairs; cotyledons plane, broader than long, slightly 2-lobed, rounded laterally; radicle short, erect, turned toward the oblong conspicuous basal hilum.
Catalpa with seven species is confined to the eastern United States, the West Indies, and eastern China, two of the species being North American. Catalpa contains a bitter principle and is a tonic and diuretic.
The generic name is that by which one of the North American species was known among the Cherokee Indians.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Flowers in many-flowered crowded panicles; calyx glabrous; corolla thickly-spotted on the inner surface; fruit slender, thin-walled; leaves short-acuminate.1. [C. bignonioides] (C). Flowers in few-flowered open panicles; calyx often sparingly villose or pubescent; corolla inconspicuously spotted; fruit stout, thick-walled; leaves caudate-acuminate.2. [C. speciosa] (A, C).
1. [Catalpa bignonioides] Walt. Catalpa. Indian Bean.
Catalpa Catalpa Karst.
Leaves broad-ovate, rather abruptly contracted into a slender point or sometimes rounded at apex, cordate at base, entire or often laterally lobed, coated below when they unfold with pale tomentum and pilose above, and at maturity thin and firm, light green and glabrous on the upper surface, pale and pubescent on the lower surface, 5′—6′ long and 4′—5′ wide, with a prominent midrib, and primary veins arcuate near the margins, connected by reticulate veinlets and furnished in the axils with clusters of dark hairs; turning black and falling after the first severe frost in the autumn; petioles stout, terete, 5′—6′ in length. Flowers opening at the end of May or in June, on slender sparingly villose or glabrous pedicels, in compact many-flowered panicles 8′—10′ long and broad, with light green branches tinged with purple; calyx ½′ long, glabrous, green or light purple; corolla white, nearly 2′ long, 1½′ wide, marked on the inner surface on the lower side by 2 rows of yellow blotches following 2 parallel ridges or folds, and in the throat and on the lower lobes of the limb by crowded conspicuous purple spots. Fruit ripening in the autumn, in thick-branched orange-colored panicles, remaining unopened during the winter, 6′—20′ long and ¼′—⅓′ thick in the middle, with a thin wall bright chestnut-brown on the outer surface and light olive-brown and lustrous on the inner surface, splitting in the spring into 2 flat valves; seeds about 1′ long, ¼′ wide, silvery gray, with pointed wings terminating in long pencil-shaped tufts of white hairs.
A tree, rarely 60° high, with a short trunk 3°—4° in diameter, long heavy brittle branches forming a broad head, and dichotomous branchlets green shaded with purple when they first appear, and during their first winter thickened at the nodes, slightly puberulous, lustrous, light orange color or gray-brown, covered with a slight glaucous bloom, marked by large pale scattered lenticels, and by large oval elevated leaf-scars containing a circle of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, becoming in their third or fourth year, reddish brown and marked by a network of thin flat brown ridges. Winter-buds covered by chestnut-brown broad-ovate rounded slightly puberulous loosely imbricated scales, those of the inner ranks when fully grown bright green, pubescent, and sometimes 2′ in length. Bark of the trunk ¼′—⅓′ thick, light brown tinged with red, and separating on the surface into large thin irregular scales. Wood not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, with lighter colored often nearly white sapwood of 1 or 2 layers of annual growth; used and highly valued for fence-posts and rails.
Distribution. Usually supposed to be indigenous on the banks of the rivers of southwestern Georgia, western Florida, and central Alabama and Mississippi, and now widely naturalized through the south Atlantic states and in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Often planted for the decoration of parks and gardens in the eastern United States, and hardy as far north as eastern New England, and in western, central, and southern Europe. A dwarf round-headed form (var. nana Bur.) of unknown origin is often cultivated under the erroneous name of C. Bungei Hort, not C. A. Meyer.
× Catalpa hybrida Spaeth a hybrid of this species and the Chinese C. ovata G. Don is occasionally cultivated.
2. [Catalpa speciosa] Engelm. Western Catalpa.
Leaves oval, long-pointed, cordate at base, and usually entire or furnished with 1 or 2 lateral teeth, pilose above when they unfold and covered below and on the petioles with pale or rufous tomentum, and at maturity thick and firm, dark green on the upper surface and covered with soft pubescence on the lower surface, especially on the stout midrib and the primary veins furnished in their axils with large clusters of dark glands, 10′—12′ long and 7′—8′ wide; turning black and falling after the first severe frost of the autumn; petioles stout, terete, 4′—6′ in length. Flowers appearing late in May or early in June, on slender purple glabrous pedicels furnished near the middle with 1—3 bractlets, in open few-flowered panicles 5′—6′ long and broad, with green or purple branches marked by orange-colored lenticels, the lowest branches often in the axils of small leaves; calyx purple, often sparingly villose or pubescent on the outer surface; corolla white, often spotted externally with purple near the base, about 2′ long and 2½′ wide, and marked internally on the lower side by 2 bands of yellow blotches following 2 lateral ridges and by occasional purple spots spreading over the lobes of the lower lip of the limb; filaments marked near the base by oblong purple spots. Fruit 8′—20′ long, ½′—¾′ in diameter near the middle, with a thick wall splitting toward spring into 2 concave valves; seeds 1′ long and ⅓′ wide, with a light brown coat, and wings rounded at the ends and terminating in a fringe of short hairs.
A tree, in the forest occasionally 120° high, with a tall straight trunk rarely 4½° in diameter, slender branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and branchlets light green often tinged with purple and pilose with scattered pale hairs when they first appear, light orange color or reddish brown, covered with a slight bloom during their first winter, and marked by numerous conspicuous pale lenticels and by the elevated oval leaf-scars ¼′ long and displaying a circular row of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars, becoming darker in their second and third years; usually smaller, and in open situations rarely more than 50° high, with a short trunk and a broad head of spreading branches. Winter-buds covered by loosely imbricated ovate chestnut-brown scales keeled on the back, slightly apiculate at apex, those of the inner ranks at maturity foliaceous, obovate, acute, gradually narrowed below to a sessile base, many-nerved with dark veins, pubescent on the lower surface, and sometimes 2½′ long and ¾′ wide. Bark of the trunk ¾′—1′ thick, brown tinged with red, and broken on the surface into thick scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, with thin nearly white sapwood of 1 or 2 layers of annual growth; largely used for fence-posts, rails, telegraph and telephone poles, and occasionally for furniture and the interior finish of houses.
Distribution. Borders of streams and ponds, and fertile often inundated bottom-lands; valley of the Vermilion River, Illinois, through southern Illinois and Indiana, western Kentucky and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas; very abundant and probably of its largest size in southern Illinois and Indiana; naturalized through cultivation in southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.
Often planted in the prairie region of the Mississippi basin as a timber-tree, and as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern states, and now in many other countries with a temperate climate.