''Catalpa fargesii'', the Chinese bean tree, is a species of tree in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Bignoniaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to China. Growing to about 25 m tall, it is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree which produces abundant pink blossom in spring, followed by narrow brown beans-like fruit in the autumn. Some sources place the species as a synonym of ''

Catalpa bungei ''Catalpa bungei'', commonly known as Manchurian catalpa, is a species of catalpa native to China. The specific epithet honors the botanist Alexander Bunge, who collected the specimens that Carl Anton von Meyer later described. The flowers are ar ...

''.

Description

The tree can grow up to tall. It has a

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

(leaf-stems) which are long. It has leaves which are broadly ovate, straight or slightly heart-shaped at the base, or long and taper-pointed. They are long and wide. They have a soft, downy underside, which does fade at the end of the growing season. It blooms in summer, The flowers are similar in form to those of

paulownia ''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood trees (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. The genus and family are native to east Asia and are widespread across China. The genus, o ...

. The corolla is bell-shaped, two-lipped flowers are borne in

corymbs Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s, of between 7 and 15 individual flowers. They are long. They come in shades from lilac, pinkish, or pale red to pale purple. The throat is freckled with purple, brownish red, or brownish spots, on a background of yellow staining. It has small

anthers The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

and a 2-lobed stigma. After it flowers, it produces seeds between June and November. The long and very slender, seed capsule or seed-pod is long. Inside are linear and thin membranous seeds, they have hairs at both ends.

Taxonomy

It is written in

Chinese script Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

as 灰楸 hui qiu The Latin

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''fargesii'' refers to Père Farges, a French missionary and naturalist who was stationed in China from 1867 to 1912, he collected the original specimens in the wild, in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

. It was also later found by

Ernest Henry Wilson Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson (15 February 1876 – 15 October 1930), better known as E. H. Wilson, was a British plant collector and explorer who introduced a large range of about 2,000 Asian plant species to the Western culture, West; some si ...

, who then sent seed from

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

to the west, in 1901 and then again in 1907. ''Catalpa fargesii'' was first published and described by

Édouard Bureau Louis Édouard Bureau (25 May 1830 in Nantes – 14 December 1918 in Paris) was a French physician and botanist. Édouard Bureau began his medical studies in Nantes in 1848, where he held the post of director of the Muséum de Nantes (Nantes ...

, a French botanist (1830-1918), in 'Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat.' (Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, printed in Paris) Séries 2, Vol.7 on page 195 in 1884.

Distribution and habitat

''Catalpa fargesii'' is native to the

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

region of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. Mostly in China. Within the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

of; Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi (including the

Qinling Mountains The Qinling () or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Ye ...

area,), Shandong, Sichuan and Yunnan.

Habitat

It is found in the forests, along roadsides and on slopes, at an altitude of above sea level.

Cultivation

Like many of the species in the Catalpa genus, ''C. fargesii'' will thrive in full or part sun, poor or fertile soil and will grow across most climate zones. It would do well across southern Australia, all of the UK and in North America. This species is more compact than its more famous relative, ''

Catalpa bignonioides ''Catalpa bignonioides'' is a short-lived species of ''Catalpa'' that is native to the southeastern United States in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Common names include southern catalpa, cigartree, and Indian bean tree It ...

'', and is therefore more suitable for domestic gardens. The

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form may also refer to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter dat ...

''Catalpa fargesii'' f. ''duclouxii'' has received the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile: ''Catalpa fargesii''

Other sources

* Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1–1532. MIM, Deurne. * Zhang, Z. & Thawatchai, S. (1998). Bignoniaceae Flora of China 18: 213–225. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. {{Taxonbar, from=Q15225853 fargesii Trees of China Plants described in 1884