Butler Township man has 4th largest tree in the state
Oak, maple and pine are tree species most everyone in Pennsylvania has heard of, as they are more than plentiful in yards and in the forests of the Keystone State.
But Rue Snider, who lives at the intersection of New Castle and Lions roads, not only has a tree on his property that is unfamiliar to most people, but is the fourth largest of its species in the entire state.
“It’s a catalpa tree,” said Snider, who found the tree on his property when he bought it 47 years ago. “I knew it was a catalpa tree because I had experience with them when I was young.”
According to information on the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources website, the catalpa has whorled, simple heart-shaped leaves of 6 to 10 inches in length and 6 inches wide that are smooth on top and hairy beneath.
It’s stout, yellow-brown twigs have no buds at the end. Rather, small buds appear to hide in the bark, which is light brown, shallowly ridged and scaly.
The catalpa grows a long, bean-like “cigar” of up to 15 inches long and a half-inch wide that separates from the tree when ripe. Seeds have long white hairs on both ends, and the tree flowers in late spring with clusters of showy white blooms up to 10 inches long.
Snider said the trees normally max out at a height of 40 to 60 feet, but a state tree expert measured his at 80 feet tall. That garnered the designation of fourth-tallest catalpa tree in Pennsylvania, he said.
The tallest catalpa in Pennsylvania, a 95-foot specimen, lives along the White Hall Parkway in Lehigh County, according to pabigtrees.com.
Snider’s prize catalpa has 12 arms, each of which contains multiple branches.
The lower branches almost touch the ground, which is OK with Snider.
“I don’t cut things off,” he said. “You could go and have a picnic under this tree.”
He said the tree is a latecomer in the spring, and many times, he wondered if it would bloom at all.
“Then all these leaves show up and sprout with all these white flowers,” Snider said.
He said the bean-like appendages, which he calls “tobies,” start showing up four to six weeks after the flowers bloom on the catalpa.
“They’re the size of your little finger,” he said of the mature tobies.
While Snider loves his catalpa tree, he admits the specimen causes significant work at this time of year.
“The catalpa tree has very large leaves, and when they fall off, they cover your property pretty good,” he said. “I just mulch them with my riding mower.”
He said the tobies do not present a problem when they drop off their host, and also get mulched up.
“It’s just unusual,” Snider said of his prizewinning catalpa. “We point it out to everyone who comes to visit because the leaves are so big and it’s so enormous.
“It’s like having Baby Huey (gigantic ducking cartoon character) in your front yard.”
