Chitalpa Tree

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Pink Dawn Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Pink Dawn Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.  Summer Cloud has white blooms.

Lantana and Yucca beggining to bloom in Texas April Perennial Garden Landscape Design

Lantana and Yucca beggining to bloom in Texas April Perennial Garden Landscape Design

Yuccas are a common companion plat to the Chitalpa.




A. Russanov of the Botanic Garden of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences in Uzbekistan, created the hybrid between the Chilopsis and the Catalpa. Both belong to the Bignoniaceae, or trumpet vine, family in 1964.  The cross came to the US in 1997, when Robert Hebb of the New York Botanic Garden introduced it here. The hybrid remained unnamed until the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens in Claremont, CA, gave it the common name “Chitalpa.”

The gardens also named two Chitalpa cultivars: ‘Morning Cloud’, with white flowers, and ‘Pink Dawn’, with pink.  Most Chitalpa trees produce large, orchid-like, white flowers, but ‘Pink Dawn’ features pink blooms with yellow throats.  Chitalpa carries some of the best traits of both parents, yet doesn’t produce the abundant, messy seed pods that each    parent tree develops.  That’s because the flowers are sterile. Therefore, there are no seed pods to drop onto patios.

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Chitalpa Tree, blooms in the summer. Is a cross between the native Texas tree Desert Willow ant the Catalpa.

Catalpa white blooming parent tree of Chitalpa

Catalpa white blooming parent tree of Chitalpa

Poisonous Trees and Plants in Texas

Desert Willow: Poisonous Trees and Plants in Texas

Red Yucca Native Texas Plant in Full Bloom

Red Yucca Native Texas Plant in Full Bloom

 Read more about Yuccas here …
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Chitalpa a cross between Desert Willlow and Catalpa. No messy pods.

Chitalpa a cross between Desert Willow and Catalpa. No messy pods.