Catalpa speciosa

Northern Catalpa is a medium to large sized deciduous tree with showy white flowers that have bright yellow stamen and purple patterns on the inside of the flower. They flower in late spring to early summer. The foliage is noted to be very large and it produces long, showy, green seed pods that have a bean-like capsule. The leaves are very broad with a length of up to a foot with an ovate shape. These leaves turn a bright yellow in the fall which eventually will turn black. This tree has a rounded crown with spreading branches, coarse leaves, and brittle wood.

These trees are native to the North American south around Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri as well as southern Indiana and Illinois. They prefer full sun or part shade and are tolerant of most soil conditions though it prefers a moist loam with plenty of organic material.  They do well in difficult to grow locations of the landscape, such as moist low spots or dry spots with poor soils.

The name Catalpa is derived from the Muscogee Native American tribe's name for the tree "kutuhlpa" and the species name speciosa is a specific epithet meaning 'showy'. This plant is the northernmost example of its tropical family, Bignoniaceae, in the Americas. This plant is hardier than the Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides), which blooms later, has smaller flowers, and has thinner-walled capsules. Both are referred to as Cigartree and Indian-bean because of their distinctive fruits.

Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems:  Similarly to others of the Catalpa genus, this species does not have a serious problem with diseases or insects, however, it could be susceptible to verticillium wilt, leaf spot, mildew, and twig blight. The larvae of the catalpa sphinx moth also feed on the foliage, which can result in considerable damage

VIDEO created by Andy Pulte for “Landscape Plant Identification, Taxonomy and Morphology” a plant identification course offered by the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee.