BIGNONIACEAE 



Catalpa 



Catalpa bignonioides, Walt. [Catalpa catalpa, (.) 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; petioles 

 long, stout, terete. 



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

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

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

 corolla white with yellow spots, campanulate, 5-lobed, i l /2 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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