Tree ID

Nyboy

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White Plains NY,weekends Lagrange NY.
Ny zone 5/6 self seeded, large heart shaped leafs, white clusters of flowers early summer.
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We call them Catabwa trees here. After googling, seems they go by both. Long, brown, bean-like seed pods, right?
 
With that leaf it could be a Royal Empress tree, but it's not. The Empress tree has a purple flower and that is obviously white so I also go with Catalpa. The other way to tell the difference is the seed pods. The Catalpa is like a bean, the Empress has sort of a round seed pod. Both can be invasive so keep the area mowed, they dump a lot of seeds.

We had an Empress tree in the back yard when I was growing up. One summer flying squirrels built a nest in it. That's the only time I saw flying squirrels in the wild. I've had Catalpa sprout from wood chips I get from the city to use as mulch. I let one get established at a Japanese Maple. It was a pain to kill out.
 
I had a feeling it might be invasive I saw a couple growing out of crack in blacktop of a parking lot. What I like are the big leaves almost tropical looking at least for NY. I like the paw paw for big leaves also, but not lucky with them.
 
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