Catalpa speciosa Warder, northern catalpa, catawba tree, cigar–tree. Tree, winter–deciduous, 1–trunked, in range to 6 m tall (cultivated tree in range to 15 m tall); shoots with only cauline leaves, foliage suedelike and lower surface somewhat velveteen.
Stems cylindric or occasionally internodes channeled.
Leaves ± whorled but leaves often not equal nor perfectly whorled, simple, long–petiolate with pulvinus, without stipules; petiole pulvinus to 6 mm long, green, glabrous, above pulvinus cylindric but channeled approaching blade, < 20—160 mm long, tough, with scattered, short–villous hairs; blade ovate, in range (20—)80—270 × (6—)70—190 mm, > petiole, broadly tapered to truncate or subcordate at base, entire, acute to acuminate at tip, having 3 principal veins at base and ± pinnately veined with veins sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface, upper surface initially with sessile glandular hair having colorless heads and short–hairy along principal veins aging glabrescent, lower surface soft–hairy and initially have sessile glandular hairs.
Inflorescence panicle, terminal, open with lateral branches mostly 3 per node but spreading branches often unequal, to 350 mm long, lateral branches often 3–forked, many–flowered, flowers horizontal or drooping, bracteate, glabrate; peduncle cylindric, to 75 mm long; rachis not straight; bractlet subtending pedicel oblanceolate–linear to linear, 6—7 × 0.8 mm, green; pedicel to 16 mm long, green or purple, having scattered short–villous hairs, with 1—2 bractlets along axis, < 5 mm long.
Flower bisexual, bilateral, ca. 40 mm across; calyx 2–lipped, 10—11mm long, lips lateral and sinuses shallow but splitting downward, green and tinged and dotted purplish; corolla 2–lipped, 40—52 mm long, white, easily wilted; tube 1.5—2 mm long, yellowish; throat ± bell–shaped, 18—21 mm long, white but inside (except opposite filaments) with hundreds of deep purple spots and dots forming as ca. 11 nectar lines of floor of throat; upper lip 2–lobed, semicircular in outline with V–shaped notch, ca. 20 × 27 mm, notch to 8 mm deep, lobes obtuse, wavy on margins, lacking purple pigment; lower lip 3–lobed, 3–lobed, lobes oblate, ca. 20 × 20 mm, central lobe on inner surface shallowly notched and having 2 bright yellow patches outside several dark purple nectar lines, outward from yellow mostly white, wavy on margins; stamens 2 fertile and 3 staminodes; fertile stamens fused to top of corolla tube projecting outward, filaments arched somewhat downward, 18.5—21 mm long, white with deep purple specks mostly near base, somewhat compressed approaching anther, glabrous; anthers with sacs divergent ca. 90°, sacs 3—3.2 mm long, cream–colored with purple connective, longitudinally and sideways dehiscent; pollen cream–colored; staminodes lacking anthers, fused to corolla slightly above fertile anthers, slender–cylindric, 4—6 mm long, white, often curled at tip, glabrous; nectary disc surrounding base of ovary, 1.7 mm across, 0.35—0.4 mm long, white, producing copious nectar; pistil 1, ca. 25 mm long; ovary superior, barrel–shaped, ca. 3 × 1.5—1.6 mm, green, glabrous, 2–chambered, each chamber with many ovules attached in 2 rows to center; style cylindric, white, 2–branched, ± puberulent near base, the branches spreading, stigmatic, ca. 2 mm long.
Fruit capsule, loculicidal, pendent, 2–valved, many–seeded, cylindric, 190—480 × 6.5—12 mm when green, valves drying dark brown and flattened to 9—15 mm wide, with longitudinal ridges, with narrower dry septum.
Seed oblong to oblong–elliptic and strongly flattened, 35—50 × 5—8 mm, light brown, 2–lobed having seed chambers with tuft of parallel, light brown long hairs at each end, to midpoint fused into papery extension from seed chamber with free hairs as tips.
A. C. Gibson