Plants 4 Bees :: Bignoniaceae :: Photo_of_Catalpa_speciosa

Catalpa speciosa

Scientific name	:	Catalpa speciosa
Origin	:	While the species has been extensively planted, it apparently originally had a remarkably narrow natural range in the river valleys of the lower Wabash and Ohio and central Mississippi Rivers with the southern tip of Illinois being about the center of that range[7].
Description	:	Catalpa speciosa in many ways is a larger and more hardy tree than C. bignonioides
Distribution	:	In addition to the U. S. distribution, the species undoubtedly can be found in some of the warmer areas of Canada. Dirr[3] considers hardy catalpa to be a zone 4 to 8 and possibly 9 species. Most commonly it is found in damp woods, on river floodplains and bottomlands.
Blooming period	:	Nye[10] provides the information that the species blooms in Utah in June. At The Morton Arboretum near Chicago it blooms in early to mid June[7]. In Michigan it blooms during June and July[1] and about mid June in Boston[20].
Importance	:	Pellett[14], from his vantage point as one of the major contributors to information about North American bee forage, felt that the many testimonies about the northern catalpa gave “an unqualified endorsement of the catalpa as a nectar producer”, but also pointed out that there was relatively little mention of it in the American beekeeping literature. Lovell[5] reported the species as a good honey plant in some localities. In Utah, Nye[10] reports that the fragrant flowers produce much nectar. Interestingly, it was not mentioned by Vansell[18] in his earlier publication dealing with the bee forage of Utah. Pammel and King[13] agree almost to the word with Nye. Oertel provides the information from his numerous questionnaires that C. speciosa is of at least some importance in NE, OK, KS and PA. In addition the genus, which probably included some C. speciosa, was said to be of some importance in CA, IA, IL, IN, VA and WA. While I have personally seen bees working Northern Catalpa, crawling right down into the heart of the flower to reach the nectar, I have not formed the opinion that it is an exceptionally attractive bee forage. Like C. bignonioides, northern catalpa has extrafloral nectaries on the undersurface of the leaves at the junctures of major leaf veins. The literature seems to make less mention of them than of the ones in southern catalpa. I personally have not seen bees working the extrafloral nectaries of either North American species even though I have seen them when they were secreting nectar.
Honey	:	Nye[10] provides the information that the honey is thin and watery, but is rarely obtained pure.
Pollen	:	While I have not yet found specific information about pollen production, the species presumably does provide pollen since C. bignonioides does.
Additional information	:	While northern catalpa is frequently planted as an ornamental, it has most of the drawbacks as its close southern relative (which see). The lumber from the species is porous and coarse grained, soft and weak, but very durable in contact with the soil. The sapwood is pale gray and the heartwood grayish brown. I consider it a handsome wood. In addition to uses where durability in contact with the soil is important (fence posts, railroad ties etc.), the lumber is used for interior trim, picture frames, furniture and cabinetwork. The tree is sometimes used in mine reclamations and shelterbelts.
Reference	:	1. Barnes, B. V., W. H. Wagner.1981. Michigan Trees. The University of Michigan Press. Ann Arbor. 2. Burgett, D. M., B. A. Stringer and L. D. Johnston. 1989. Nectar and Pollen Plants of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Honeystone Press. Blodgett, OR. 3. Dirr, M. A. 1998. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Stipes Publishing L.L.C. Champaign, IL. 4. Larsson, H. C. and R. Shuel. 1992. Nectar Trees, Shrubs and Herbs of Ontario. (C. D. Scott-Dupree, Ed.). Publication 82. Ontario Minister of Agriculture and Food. 5. Lovell, J. 1926. Honey Plants of North America. A. I. Root Co. Medina, OH. 6. Milum, V. G. 1957. Illinois Honey and Pollen Plants. Contributions from the Department of Horticulture, University of Illinois, Urbana IL. 7. Morton Arboretum Staff. 1990. Woody Plants of The Morton Arboretum. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, IL. 8. Morton, J. A. 1964. Honeybee plants of South Florida. Proceedings, Florida State Horicultural Society 77:415-436. 9. Morton, J. F. 1981. 500 Plants of South Florida. Fairchild Tropical Garden. Miami, Florida. 10. Nye, W. P. 1971. Nectar and Pollen Plants of Utah. Utah State University Monograph Series, Volume XVIII, Number 3. Utah State University Press. Logan, UT. 11. Oertel, E. 1938. Untitled comments. American Bee Journal 78:403. 12. Oertel, E. 1939. Honey and Pollen Plants of the United States (U. S. D. A. Circular 554) U. S. Government Printing Office. Washington D. C. 13. Pammel, L. H. and C. M. King. 1930. Honey Plants of Iowa. Iowa Geological Survey Bulletin No. 7. Iowa Geological Survey, State of Iowa. Des Moines. 14. Pellett, F. C. 1978. American Honey Plants. Dadant and Sons, Hamilton, IL. 15. Sanborn, C. E. and E. E. Scholl. 1908. Texas Honey Plants. Bulletin No. 102, Texas Agricultural Experiment Stations. College Station. Texas. 16. Schiller, Dr. J. 1938. The Catalpa Tree as a two-Fold Nectar Source. American Bee Journal 78:329-320. 17. USDA, NRCS. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA 18. Vansell, G. H. 1949. Pollen and Nectar Plants of Utah. Circular 124, Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah Agricultural College. 19. Watkins, J. V. and T. J. Sheehan. 1975 Florida Landscape Plants--Native and exotic.(Revised edition). The University Presses of Florida. Gainesville, FL. 20. Wyman, D. 1950. Order of Bloom. Arnoldia 10(7-8):41-56.