Catalpa 1483 



CATALPA SPECIOSA, Western Catalpa 



Catalpa speciosa, 1 Warder, ex Engelmann, in Bot. Gaz. v. i (1880); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vi. 89, 

 tt. 290, 291 (1894), and Trees N. Amer. 795 (1905); Bureau, in Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. 

 vi. 184(1894); Andre", in Rev. Hort. lxvii. 136, fig. (1895); Hall and Schrenk, U.S. Dep. 

 Agric. Bur. Forestry, Bull. No. 37 (1902); Roberts and Dickens, Kansas State Agric. College, 

 Bull. No. 108 (1902); Dode, in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, i. 195 (1907). 



Catalpa cordifolia, Jaume, in Duhamel, Traiti des Arb. ii. t. 5 (1802) (excl. text) (not Moench). 



A tree, rarely attaining in America 120 feet in height and 14 feet in girth, usually 

 smaller. Bark thick, deeply furrowed, and roughened with scales. Young branchlets 

 glabrous. Leaves similar to those of C. bignonioides, but without their peculiar 

 odour, often larger, up to 10 in. long and 7 in. wide, with longer acuminate 

 points ; glabrescent above ; lower surface with the pubescence of simple hairs more 

 marked than in C. bignonioides, spreading over the whole of the midrib and extending 

 to the petioles. 



Flowers appearing two weeks earlier than those of C. bignonioides, few in 

 open panicles, which are about 6 in. long and broad ; calyx purplish, glandular- 

 pubescent ; corolla white, 2 in. long, 2^ in. wide, often spotted externally with 

 purple near the base ; marked internally on the lower side with two bands of 

 yellow blotches following two lateral ridges, and a few purple spots on the lobes 

 of the lower lip of the limb. Fruit, 8 in. to 20 in. long, } in. to f in. in 

 diameter in the middle, with a thick wall, splitting into two concave valves. Seeds 

 1 in. long, |- in. wide, light brown, with wings rounded at the ends and ending in 

 a fringe of short hairs. 



C. speciosa under favourable conditions differs from C. bignonioides in habit, 

 forming a narrow tree with ascending branches ; but in the arboretum at Segrez, 

 where there are old trees of both species, they are nearly alike in appearance. They 

 are readily distinguished by their flowers, fruits, and seeds ; but when these are 

 absent, the main distinctive character is the odour of the leaves. 2 



This species in its natural range is confined to a limited region, extending from 

 the valley of the Vermilion river, Illinois, through southern Illinois and Indiana, 

 western Kentucky and Tennessee, south-eastern Missouri, and north-eastern 

 Arkansas. It comes in contact with C. bignonioides in south-eastern Missouri ; and 

 is abundant and of its largest size in southern Illinois and Indiana. It has become 

 naturalised through cultivation in southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern 

 Texas. 



It has been planted in the United States as far north as South Dakota, southern 

 Michigan, and Minnesota, and southern Massachusetts ; and westward to eastern 



1 Warder, in Western Hort. Review, iii. 533 (1853), was the first to distinguish C. speciosa, but did not then publish 

 this specific name. It appears to have been first used by Sargent, who, in Gard. Chron. xii. 784 (1879), points out that the 

 western Catalpa differs from C. bignonioides ; and says that if distinct, it should be known as C. speciosa. 



2 W. H. Lamb, in Proc. Soc. Amer. Foresters, vii. 80, figs. I, 2 (1912), points out that the septum of the pod (the long 

 wrinkled partition along which the seeds are arranged) is nearly circular in section in C. speciosa, and lenticular or narrowly 

 elliptic in C. bignonioides. 



