Silver trumpet tree

Description

Tabebuia aurea is a species of Tabebuia native to South America in Suriname, Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. The common English name Caribbean trumpet tree is misleading, as it is not native to the Caribbean. It is also known as the silver trumpet tree, and tree of gold. It is a small dry season-deciduous tree growing to 8 m tall. The leaves are palmately compound, with five or seven leaflets, each leaflet 6–18 cm long, green with silvery scales both above and below. The flowers are bright yellow, up to 6.5 cm diameter, produced several together in a loose panicle. The fruit is a slender 10 cm long capsule. It is a popular ornamental tree in subtropical and tropical regions, grown for its spectacular flower display on leafless shoots at the end of the dry season. This species presence in riparian areas of the Caatinga of northeastern Brazil is a crucial resource for Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), which is extinct in the wild with fewer than 100 birds remaining in captivity. Any future reintroduction would have to provide sufficient T. aurea for nesting and other purposes - while the tree is not considered threatened on a global scale, locally it has declined due to unsustainable use for timber and some other factors. Tabebuia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. The common name "roble" is sometimes found in English. Tabebuias have been called "trumpet trees", but this name is usually applied to other trees and has become a source of confusion and misidentification. Tabebuia consists almost entirely of trees, but a few are often large shrubs. A few species produce timber, but the genus is mostly known for those that are cultivated as flowering trees. Tabebuia is native to the American tropics and subtropics from Mexico and the Caribbean to Argentina. Most of the species are from Cuba and Hispaniola. It is commonly cultivated and often naturalized or adventive beyond its natural range. It easily escapes cultivation because of its numerous, air-borne seeds. In 1992, a revision of Tabebuia described 99 species and one hybrid. Phylogenetic studies of DNA sequences later showed that Tabebuia, as then circumscribed, was polyphyletic. In 2007, it was divided into three separate genera. Primavera (Roseodendron donnell-smithii) and a related species with no unique common name (Roseodendron chryseum) were transferred to Roseodendron.