Northern Catalpa (Trees and Shrubs of South Mountain Reservation)

Northern Catalpa

Catalpa speciosa

Summary ⁴

Catalpa speciosa, commonly known as the northern catalpa, hardy catalpa, western catalpa, cigar tree, catawba-tree, or bois chavanon, is a species of Catalpa native to the midwestern United States.

Catalpa speciosa is a medium-sized, deciduous tree growing to 15–30 meters tall and 12 meters wide. It has a trunk up to 1 m in diameter, with brown to gray bark maturing into hard plates or ridges. The leaves are deciduous, opposite (or whorled), large, heart shaped, 7 - 12 in long and 6 - 8 in broad, pointed at the tip and softly hairy beneath. The leaves generally do not color in autumn before falling, instead, they either fall abruptly after the first hard freeze, or turn a slightly yellow-brown before dropping off. The flowers are 1 - 2 1/2 in across, trumpet shaped, white with yellow stripes and purple spots inside; they grow in panicles of 10-30. The fruit is a long, thin legume-like capsule, 20–40 cm long and 10–12 mm diameter; it often stays attached to tree during winter (and can be mistaken for brown icicles). The pod contains numerous flat, light brown seeds with two papery wings.

Sources and Credits

no rights reserved, uploaded by rockybajada
(c) Clivid, some rights reserved (CC BY-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/lungfish2000/6270128426/
(c) Dendroica cerulea, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dendroica/7858825524/
Adapted by Tom Pollard from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa_speciosa

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