# ID Tennessee tree please



## TennHalfBack (Jul 11, 2015)

Leaves are huge 8 or 9 inches long. Has lilac colored trumpet shaped flowers in spring - sorry no picture of the flowers. Has seed pods but I've seen no "nuts".


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## MOSTBCWT (May 5, 2016)

https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/documents/PB1756.pdf

I use this guide. Without being able to see the edges of the leaves and the vein patterns it's hard to say. This guide should answer your question.


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## TennHalfBack (Jul 11, 2015)

Thanks MOS -I've gone thru that several times - no luck. Otherwise, it seems like a good reference. Might be me............

It's in our yard so may have been planted.


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## Dan in Ohio (Jul 16, 2005)

Sure looks like a Catalpa to me.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Not a catalpa, they have a slender, cigar shaped fruit. I think it is nonnative.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Maybe, check out Tung Oil Tree.


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## TnTnTn (Dec 23, 2004)

It's Paulownia tomentosa aka Princess tree or bean tree or other common names. It is a non native invasive however the wood can be valuable.


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## Grits57 (Nov 29, 2008)

Definitely a Catapla tree.


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## TennHalfBack (Jul 11, 2015)

My tree has no "beans". Looking like the Paulownia tomentosa based on the seed pods.

I've heard the wood is valuable, and DW thinks the tree is ugly, so if I can be certain, it might have to come down http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Any other suggestions welcome.

Thanks, Bob


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I don't think the wood is valuable. There is a large tract near here planted with, 20 or so years old. It grows fast and will grow back from stump to be harvested again. That means softwood or pulp.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I think that is what your tree is. I haven't really looked. I'm quite sure it isn't native. I'd exterminate, with extreme prejudice.  unless you just want it for some reason. I don't think they're highly invasive though, they do grow fast.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

It is very valuable if growing in a stand. A lone tree in a field will grow very quickly and have a larger hollow place in the center, it is a pithy centered tree. In a stand the hollow is much smaller yieling more wood. It grows fast but is very impervious to rot. The Japanese value it for making sandals, among other things. Being valuable, and being marketable are two different things. My bees seem to like it, don't really know what kind of honey it makes, though. A fairly messy tree, but beautiful in many ways. Non-native, but doesn't seem to spread invasively, nothing like the paradise trees.


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## ldc (Oct 11, 2006)

The wood of the paulonia is so valuable that people steal the trees. Happened when I lived in New Jersey. Paochers used helicopters and huge lights to find the trees in the woods when they were blooming. Came back during the day and cut them down.


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