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.