CATALPA, a genus of trees belonging to the family Bignoni aceae and containing about 1 o species in North America, the West Indies and China. The best known is the common catalpa (C. bignonioides), native to the south-eastern United States, which is often cultivated in parks and gardens, both in Europe and America. It is a stately tree with large heart-shaped pointed leaves and panicles of white bell-shaped flowers streaked with yellow and brown purple. The western or hardy catalpa (C. speciosa), with larger flowers, found in woods from Indiana to Missouri south ward to Tennessee and Arkansas, has become naturalized else where through cultivation, especially south of its native range.