BIGNONIACEAE 

 Catalpa 



Catalfa bignonioides Walt. [Catalpa catalpa (L.) Karst.] 



HABIT. A tree 40-50 feet high, with a short, thick trunk 

 and a broad, irregular crown of long, crooked branches and 

 coarse, upright branchlets. 



LEAVES. Opposite or whorled, simple, 5-8 inches long, 4-5 

 inches broad ; heart-shaped ; entire or sometimes slightly lobed ; 

 thin and firm; glabrous, light green above, downy beneath, with 

 dark, nectariferous glands in the axils of the primary veins, 

 turning black and falling with the first severe frost; petiole? 

 long, stout, terete. 



FLOWERS. June-July, after the leaves ate full grown; 

 perfect; borne on slender, hairy pedicels in compact, many- 

 flowered panicles 8-10 inches long; calyx 2-lobed, green or pur- 

 ple; corolla white with yellow spots, campanulate, 5-lobed, i>> 

 inches broad ; stamens 2, staminodia 3 ; ovary 2-celled. 



FRUIT. Ripens in early autumn; slender, 2-celled, cylindri- 

 cal capsule 8-20 inches long and about J4 inch thick; hangs on 

 tree all winter, opening in spring before falling; seeds silvery 

 gray, I inch long, with pointed, fringed wings at each end. 



WINTER-BUDS. Terminal bud absent; lateral buds 

 brownish, globose, inconspicuous. 



BARK. Twigs greenish purple, becoming red-brown and 

 marked by a network of thin, flat ridges; thin, red-brown on the 

 trunk, separating into large, thin, irregular scales. 



WOOD. Light, soft, weak, coarse-grained, light brown, 

 with very thin, whitish sapwood ; very durable in contact with 

 the soil. 



NOTES. A native of the Lower Mississippi River Basin, 

 but naturalized in southern Michigan, where it is a popular shade 

 and ornamental tree. Foliage appears very tardily in spring. 

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