The original main range of this widely planted tree is considered to have been mostly in the central Mississippi Valley of Ark., Mo., Ill., Ky. and Tenn. (Little 1971; K, W). Colls. from the Mississippi, Ohio and Green Rv. bottomland in CALL, CARL, FULT, HICK, MCLE, OHIO, UNIO, WARR and perhaps elsewhere appear to be from native plants. Rafinesque (1836, 1:31-32) suggested that this species was spread to the north by Indian tribes. The species was reported from Ky. by Rafinesque and by Short et al. (1833), but before 1950 colls. from the wild (especially by Price, Eggleston, Smith & Hodgdon, Braun) were concentrated in western regions (G; Price 1901). It was listed as Bignonia catalpa L. for the JEFF area in McMurtrie (1819). However, there is archaeological evidence that speciosa occurred upstream along the Ohio in W.Va. before 1500 AD (Hemmings & Core 1976), and the species is currently frequent in the lower Kanawha Rv. valley. Much speciosa has been planted throughout the whole Ohio Valley, and there are frequent escapes. Consistent distinction of native from adventive plants is not attempted here. Also, distinction from bignonioides needs to be rechecked in several cases; see notes under that species. Both species have been planted in the past for the catalpa sphinx moth larvae that are specialists on catalpa leaves; these larvae were traditionally prized as bait for fishing. These larvae are resistant to the iridoid glycosides in Catalpa, and themselves become unpalatable to some predators (Lampert et al. 2011). The plant is generally repellant to mammalian herbivores, except perhaps locally to rabbits in winter (Pearce & Reineke 1943). The leaves of speciosa are sometimes remarkably large in Ky., second perhaps in average size to Magnolia macrophylla among native species. Leaves are mostly 15-30 cm long but have been observed up to 40-60 cm long, including the 10-20 cm petiole, and 20-30 cm wide.