Tree usually 10 - 15 m tall (can reach 30 m), trunk 40 cm - 0.75 m in diameter

Leaves: opposite or whorled, dark green, 20 - 30 cm long, 15 - 20 cm wide, heart-shaped with long pointed tips, non-toothed or slightly lobed, hairy beneath.

Flowers: borne in a loosely branched inflorescence (12 - 20 cm long), white with tiny yellow and purple spots, 6 - 7 cm long, fused tubular to bell-shaped petals, two-lipped with three lower and two upper lobes.

Fruit: a long cylindrical capsule changing from green to brown, 25 - 50 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, persisting through winter and splitting into two in spring.The seeds are 2 - 3 cm long, two-winged, and fringed at the ends of the wings.

Bark: reddish to grayish brown, deeply furrowed with scaly ridges.

Twigs: stout, greenish purple, changing to orangish or reddish brown and darkening with age.

Terminal buds: absent.

Leaf scars: large and almost circular.

Lateral buds: brown, tiny, and rounded.

Similar species: Catalpa speciosa and Catalpa bignonioides are very similar species. Catalpa bignonioides has smaller leaves, blooms about two weeks later, has more but smaller flowers, scaly bark, narrower pods, and an unpleasant odor when leaves are crushed.

Flowering: May to June

Habitat and ecology: This species, introduced from the southern U.S., sometimes escapes cultivation into disturbed weedy areas, floodplains, low woods, and along railroads.

Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native

Notes: The rot-resistant wood of this species is used for fence posts, railroad ties, cabinets, lumber, picture frames, and interior trim. Small branches tend to break in storms as the wood is brittle.

Etymology: Catalpa is the Native American name for this tree. Speciosa comes from the Latin word for showy.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Tree to 30 m, with well developed trunk; lvs broadly cordate- ovate or rotund, to 3 dm, distinctly acuminate, hairy beneath; infls to 2 dm; cor white, marked with 2 yellow stripes and faintly purple-spotted, the limb 5-6 cm wide; fr 2-5 dm נ1-1.5 cm, with a stout quadrangular placenta; seeds 2.5 cm, the wings rounded at the end and with a flat fringe of hairs; 2n=40. Alluvial forests; s. Ind. to Ark. and Tex., often cult. farther n. and e., and sometimes escaped. May, June.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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