Tree to 15 m (50 ft) tall and 50 cm (20 in) in diameter with rounded open crown. Bark thin, brownish gray, scaly. Twigs thick, green becoming brown, usually glabrous, with large leaf scars usually in threes. Buds very small, pale brown, rounded, usually three at a node, no end bud. Leaves in a whorl of three or opposite, long-petioled, cordate, acuminate, entire, ovate, 13-25 cm (5-10 in) long and 10-18 cm (4-7 in) wide, glabrous dull green above, paler and soft-hairy below. Flowers white with purple spots and orange stripes, fragrant, bell-shaped, about 4 cm (1.6 in) long and wide, numerous in panicles at ends of leafy twigs in late Spring. Fruits long thin cylindrical capsules, green becoming brown, 15-30 cm (6-12 in) long and about 1 cm (0.4 in) in diameter.

Antiseptic, antidote to snake bites, laxative, sedative and vermifuge (bark)

Catalpa bignonioides Walt.
Floridata
Plants for a Future

Caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ursolic acid (leaf); linoleic acid, oleic acid(seed); protocatechuic acid (fruit); tannin (bark)

On wounds and abrasions (leaves); in the treatment of asthma and bronchitis and is applied externally to wounds (seed)