Northern catalpa

Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

Arizona Mountains forests

Atlantic coastal pine barrens

Blue Mountains forests

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Central Tallgrass prairie

Central-Southern Cascades Forests

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Soil pH

Acid / Neutral

Acid is below pH 6.0, neutral 6.0 to 8.0, alkaline above 8.0.

Spacing

20 ft

Habit

Medium to large deciduous tree with coarse, spreading branches and a rounded to narrow-oval crown

Care tips

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Site it well away from patios, drives, roofs and parked cars: the pods, flowers, big leaves and brittle branches all come down, and the Wildflower Center calls catalpas major litter producers.

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Use it where other trees struggle: NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden recommend it for moist low spots and for dry, poor soils, and it tolerates seasonal flooding and city conditions.

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Expect occasional bare branches in summer from catalpa sphinx caterpillars; NC State Extension says the damage is temporary and not lethal, and the caterpillars feed birds.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in full sun to part shade. NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both say it copes with difficult ground, from moist low spots that flood seasonally to dry, poor soils. Give it a sheltered spot well away from buildings, cars and paths: the wood is weak and branches break off in strong wind and ice, as Plants For A Future, the Missouri Botanical Garden and Wikipedia all note.

Transplanting

Trees transplant easily, per Plants For A Future, and the Wildflower Center calls it very easy to transplant. Move young trees, since a large catalpa is a heavy, brittle-limbed tree to handle.

Early growth

Plants For A Future advises protecting young plants from late frosts. It establishes easily: Plants For A Future and the Wildflower Center both say it transplants well. Water a young tree through dry spells; the Wildflower Center notes that, despite its reputation, it is not especially drought tolerant.

Maturity

NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both give 40 to 70 feet tall, and the Missouri Botanical Garden 20 to 50 feet wide; NC State gives a much narrower 8 to 16 feet wide. The Wildflower Center gives up to 100 feet. The Missouri Botanical Garden lists no serious pests or diseases but names verticillium wilt, leaf spots, mildew and twig blight, and warns that catalpa sphinx caterpillars can strip the leaves; NC State calls that damage temporary and not lethal. Expect litter: the Wildflower Center says catalpas shed flowers, small branches, large leaves and pods, and Wikipedia adds that pieces of pod and seed rain down from winter through spring.

Propagation

The Wildflower Center says seed needs no pretreatment and that it also roots from semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer or root cuttings in late fall. Plants For A Future sows seed as soon as it is ripe, or gives stored seed 3 weeks of cold stratification and sows it in spring. Collect the pods once they turn brown and start to dry; the Wildflower Center warns that pods left too long on the tree are likely to be attacked by insects.

Native range

Native

Naturalized

Native across 30 US states; naturalized in 5 US states.

Worldwide native range.

Native ecoregions

Naturally belongs in 22 ecoregions - its native range crosses a state or province each one spans (not necessarily this exact habitat).

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

Atlantic coastal pine barrens

Canadian Aspen forests and parklands

Central Tallgrass prairie

Chihuahuan desert

Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland

Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests

Edwards Plateau savanna

Flint Hills tallgrass prairie

A medium-to-large native shade tree of central and eastern North America, reaching 50 to 80 feet with an ovate-rounded crown and large, asymmetric heart-shaped leaves. In June it carries pale-yellow, intensely fragrant flowers on pendulous cymes - each cluster hung from a distinctive strap-like leafy bract - that ripen into pea-sized nutlets. The fragrant June bloom is a premier nectar source: Missouri Botanical Garden lists it as attracting bees and butterflies, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as having special value to both native and honey bees.

Climate notes

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NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both list Catalpa speciosa for USDA hardiness zones 4a-8b. Plants For A Future gives 4 to 9, which is not used here, and says it takes about 5°F, probably more in a continental climate; USDA PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of -38°F.

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The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: much of the eastern and central United States, from Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York west to North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah and New Mexico, and south to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. WCVP lists it as introduced in Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in Bulgaria, Romania and Korea.

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The horticultural sources describe a much smaller original range. The Missouri Botanical Garden says it is native to a relatively small area from western Tennessee, northeastern Arkansas and the lowlands of southeastern Missouri north to southern Illinois and southern Indiana, and the Wildflower Center and Plants For A Future give the same core. The Wildflower Center adds that it is now widely naturalized in the southeastern United States, and Wikipedia says its range has spread so far east of the Rocky Mountains that its true native range is obscured; an archaeological find of it on an Ohio River island in West Virginia, dated to about 1500 to 1700, suggests it was more widespread before European settlement. NC State Extension counts it as native to North Carolina but notes that some botanists think it was introduced there. WCVP's broad list and the small original range are both given here because both are what the sources say.

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Why it spread: it was planted widely for its fast growth and rot-resistant wood, which Wikipedia says was used for fence posts, and Wikipedia records that it has been cultivated in Ohio for over 200 years and has naturalized there. Plants For A Future gives it no weed potential, and none of the sources here lists it as invasive.

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Sources disagree on drought. NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden list it as drought tolerant and say it handles both wet and dry soils, USDA PLANTS rates its drought tolerance medium, and the Wildflower Center says it is not particularly drought tolerant. They agree it takes wet ground: the Missouri Botanical Garden says it tolerates seasonal flooding, and NC State tags it flood tolerant.

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Full sun / Part shade

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