The Northern Catalpa tree, Catalpa speciosa, is now naturalized in urban and rural areas and is primarily used today as a large ornamental shade tree. Farmers introduced Northern Catalpa to Ohio in order to produce large amounts of relatively lightweight timber for fenceposts, since the wood is very resistant to rotting. Northern Catalpa trees are a very fast growing trees with large heart-shaped leaves. The white flowers are on 4-8 inch long panicles in late June. Fruit is a long pod.
