Catalpas are indeed, available at many nurseries. I would try Stratham Circle Nursury in Stratham, NH, or Pawtuckaway Nursery off Rt. 125. There is also Weston Nursery in Hopkinton, Mass. and Salmon Falls in Berwick, Maine.

Just to eliminate it, it is not something like a horse chestnut compound leaf. in other words, it does not have leaflets all attached to a single stem. Another thing that differentiates it from that type of leaf, each leaf was besically the same size. A horse chestnut has smaller leaflets increasing in size until the center leaflet which is typically the largest. Poppa

Hello fhhs, It looks like fungus, which commonly grows on dead and decaying wood. It could be that it is a part of the tree that is dead wood (looks like an old cut from the picture) Hard to say, but it may just be a natural part of the tree's lifespan. Is that picture taken from a limb or from the trunk?

Thank you tj! Hope to see some of your great specimens in the Hosta Alphabet this year, you haven't been popping in much. Hmm maybe another Patterns installment in NTP to help keep us sane over winter?