BIGNONIACEAE 
Catalpa ft 
Catalpa bignonioides Walt. [Catalpa ‘catalpa (L*) Karst.] 
. i 
HABIT.—A tree 40-50 feet high, with a short, thick trunk 
and .a .broad, irregular crown of long, crooked branches dnd 
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, 114 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 %-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. 5, 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent;° lateral ‘buds 
brownish, globose, inconspicuous. ‘ 
BARK.—Twigs greenish purple, becoming red-brown abd 
marked by a network of thin, flat ridges; thin, red-brown on the 
trunk, separating into large, thin, irregular scales. fl 
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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