Indian Bean Tree
Indian Bean Tree (Catalpa bignonioides)
- Diameter: multi-stemmed x 2 (0.40 metres & 0.41 metres), Height: 6 metres
- Age (Estimated): 50 years
- Crown spread: North - 5 metres, East - 4 metres, South - 6 metres, West - 7 metres
This North American tree with its very large leaves, magnificent white trumpet shaped flowers and very long bean pods is poular in towns and parks of Southern England but tends to only live between 50 and 100 years of age in England.
The Catalpa was introduced from the Mississippi Valley to Virginia and then to Britain by Mark Catesby in 1726. He was a Suffolk gentleman of small means, interested in natural history, who visited a married sister in Williamsburg USA. He made several visits to America, commissioned for £20 per annum to collect plants. From there he sent over boxes of seeds, thus introducing the Indian Bean Tree.
The Indian Bean Tree and the Church of St Michaels are within relatively modern grounds, but in the adjoining graveyard there once stood a medieval church demolished during the English Civil War to provide stone for Poole's defences.
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