In article , en?
[Howd E. Doodat] wrote...

Well, it's sure uncommon around here. It's like I said earlier, the
only other one of these beasties I've ever seen was about 20 years
ago.

Perhaps saplings or suckers as vigorous as yours are scarce, but
there may be some adult trees nearby? You mentioned that Catalpa
trees were common in your neighborhood; maybe some of them are
actually Paulownia. [Although the trees and leaves are pretty
similar, Catalpa have the long "string-bean" fruits. Paulownia
fruits are very different, rounded seed pods].

http://www.nobleplants.com/classnote.../paulownia.htm

Be that as it may, if we have a population of "small-leaved"
Princess trees around here, it's possible that they wouldn't be so
remarkable as to make me notice them.

Again, the "small-leaved" forms are just the big-leaved form,
grown up.

But the perverse looking beast we have out back now, if they were
common they'd be REAL hard to miss. ;-)

[snip]

cheers