365 Urban species. #350: Northern Catalpa

[urbpan]

Photos by urbpan. Location: Bushnell Park, Hartford.

Urban species #350: Northern catalpa Catalpa speciosa

The native range of the northern catalpa is not known for sure, but was probably a fairly small area of the Mississippi River basin. These days it can be found throughout eastern North America. It was discovered to be a valuable source of timber, as well as a hardy urban shade tree, and is widely planted. Catalpa is interesting year-round, with huge heart shaped leaves, profuse attractive flowers, and most distinctively, long straight seed capsules. The capsules can be up to two feet long, and remain dangling on the tree well into winter. Catalpa flowers are open night and day, producing more nectar at night, for the benefit of moths, but producing a more sugary nectar in the day, to attract bumblebees and carpenter bees. There are many species of catalpa, most of which are tropical; southern New England is nearly the northernmost edge of the range of northern catalpa.







Location: the Riverwalk, Hartford

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

your first img tag is broken - needs an <

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

crapdoodles. thanks.

[abearius.livejournal.com]

I like the froggy. Is that a picture of you?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's me! And a gray treefrog.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

Since you used "an" you must have had a specific name for that symbol that begins with a vowel. I would have used the cumbersome name "'lesser than' symbol". Is there (I hope) some elegent name for it I don't know yet or was it simply "arrow" you were thinkng of?

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

No, the use of "an" is simply because I was thinking "open tag". Also, the html for < is &lt, which my brain parses as "ampersand-l-t", which would necessitate using "an" instead of "a".

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I've been known to use "angle bracket". Although my favorites are "curly braces" or "curly brackets".

[karma-apple.livejournal.com]

I love Catalpa, the flowers are gorgeous!

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

I love the Catalpa tree, too. The leaves are just amazingly huge, and the flowers are very pretty. My pictures, alas, don't do them justice, but I'm posting them here anyway. Bwhahaha.

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

A couple pictures of flowers. These were taken this year at the Great Swamp NWR in New Jersey, probably in June.

[g-weir.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed from the bean-shaped pods that these plants are legumes and make thier own nitrogen.

Anyone know if that's correct?

--G

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You'd think so, but no. They are in the trumpet-creeper family (Bignoniaceae) and are not legumes. I think this must be why their fruit are referred to as "capsules" and not "pods."

[carcinogenic-.livejournal.com]

thank you for this profile. i had seen this tree around toronto during the summer and wanted to know what it was because it looked so tropical and a bit out of place. now i do! =D
i love the leaves especially, they're just so awesome. i wish a had a catalpa tree on my front lawn.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Happy to fill you in.

Catalpa

[(Anonymous)]

This appears to be an image of the Southern Catalpa tree which produces the long pods that are on display. The Northern Catalpa produces a more cluster like grouping of small pods.

i hate the catalpa tree

[(Anonymous)]

drips some kind of invisible sap on my car all summer, and drops sharp dagger-like pods for my 3 boys to stab each other with in the fall.

how do i kill this awful tree?

Re: i hate the catalpa tree

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Same as you kill any other tree, I guess--with a chainsaw.

[(Anonymous)]

My catalpa tree produced thousands of beautiful flowers but they all turned brown and dropped off the tree. I don't remember and beans last year either. Is there something wrong with the tree?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I don't know much more than what you read here, but it sounds to me like maybe the tree's flowers were not pollinated, which would be required for the tree to bear fruit.

It is possible, however, that there is something wrong with the tree. I hope you find your answer.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I live in Maine and have one! It's a bit funky due to being on an island off the coast of Maine, but it's a catalpa. :)