Catalpa

[John Nelson]

Wed 21 May 315p

Friends:

    Concerning the differentiation of Catalpa speciosa vs. C.
bignonioides:

    Godfrey & Wooten (1988) treat only C. bignoniodes for N
Fla, GA and adjacent Alkabama--which may be of some interest to
Jerome. They include no mention of C. speciosa as a synonym, so we
may presume that these authors consider C. speciosa outside the area.

    What we have in SC is a mish-mash of both, and they do seem to
intergrade a bit. Somebody needs to figure out if the caterpillars
that feed on C. bignoniodes will also eat C. speciosa--maybe there is
some biochemistry here that could separate them.

    Duncan & Duncan (1988) treat both trees for the SEUS...and
provide a key separating them.

    Later John


John B. Nelson
Curator of the Herbarium (USCH)
Department of Biological Sciences
University of South Carolina
Columbia SC 29208

nelson at biol.sc.edu
803-777-8196 phone
803-777-4002 fax