General Landscape Uses:
Specimen tree, shade tree.
Availability:
Available at native plant nurseries in northeast Florida.
Description: Small deciduous tree to 45 feet tall. Heart-shaped leaves 5-10 inches long. White, bell-shaped flowers with purple and yellow markings. Long, brown seed pods resembling string beans in the fall.
Dimensions: Up to 45 feet in height.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Scattered in North America south to Polk and Hillsborough counties; not recorded for eastern coastal counties. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Floodplain forests
Soils: Moist, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, with humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate lonog-term flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.
Drought Tolerance: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: White
Flower Characteristics: Showy.
Flowering Season: Late spring.
Fruit: Narrow pod 5-15 inches long.
Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host for the catalpa sphinx moth (Ceratomia catalpae)
References: Mellichamp (
2014), Wunderlin and Hansen 2011
Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page. We have been adding data for this species for central and northern Florida and welcome any feedback or review. If you would like to contribute information or images, please contact George Gann via the IRC staff page.
