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Nomenclature etc. BIGNONIACEAE. Syn.: Catalpa syringifolia Sims. Trade and local names: catawba, cigar tree, catalpa (common, hardy, western), Shawnee wood, Indian bean, Indian cigar, smoking bean (US); bois puant (FR); Trompetenbaum (DE). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: North America (cultivated in Europa).
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct. Heartwood basically brown, white or grey. Sapwood colour distinct from heartwood colour. Density 0.35–0.45 g/cm³.
Vessels. Vessels present. Wood ring porous or semi ring porous. Vessels arranged in tangential bands (in last formed latewood) or no specific pattern, in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more or in clusters (clusters only in last formed latewood). Average tangential vessel diameter 250–300 µm (earlywood). Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 7–11 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits. Helical thickenings present, only in narrow vessel elements, throughout the body of vessel elements. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled to of medium wall thickness. Average fibre length short. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma present, banded. Bands marginal (or seemingly marginal). Axial parenchyma bands much wider than rays. Bands coarse. Axial parenchyma paratracheal. Paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric and confluent. Axial parenchyma as strands. Average number of cells per strand: 2–5.
Rays. Rays 4–8 per tangential mm, multiseriate, (1–)2–4 cells wide. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular), or two or more cell types (heterocellular) (few); homocellular ray cells procumbent. Heterocellular rays with square and upright cells restricted to marginal rows, mostly 1 marginal row of upright or square cells.
Storied structures. Storied structure absent.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals not observed. Silica not observed.
Illustrations. • Transverse section. Catalpa bignonioides. • Tangential section. Catalpa bignonioides. • Radial section. Catalpa bignonioides. • Vessels clusters; spiral thickenings. Catalpa bignonioides. small vessels clustered in latewood (left) with helical thickenings (right).
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 9th April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
