06.02.20 Fishin’ Worm Tree

Children who run free and make their own adventures love this grand flowering tree, the Catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides. The tree is home base for games and imaginary play as kids climb its large, low, gently-curving branches. In late summer the tree produces long, tough, green “beans” which become excellent swords, spears, and even make-believe cigars. Most remarkably, though, the tree is often home to an annual infestation of “catawba worms,” the larva of the catalpa sphinx moth. The rapidly growing yellow and black larva of this insect eat only the leaves of catalpas, leaving the tree completely bare in just a couple of weeks. Fortunately this vigorous tree quickly replaces the leaves. But country boys know catawba worms make premium fish bait! Turned inside-out with a twig, the impaled caterpillars are candy to skillet-size pond fish. My favorite characteristic of this majestic tree are its blossoms, big and bodacious like prom orchids. This flower was my first selection for the Flora Appalachee series of woodcut prints.

The first woodcut in my Flora Appalachee series was the catalpa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A beautiful early drawing of the catalpa and its flowers from the collection of the Morgan Library.