Tecoma stans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Yellow Trumpetbush | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||
| Tecoma stans (L.) Juss. ex Kunth |
Yellow Trumpetbush (Tecoma stans) is a species of flowering perennial shrub in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, that is native to the Americas. Other names include "yellow bells" (geelklokkies in Afrikaans), "yellow elder", ginger-thomas, and esperanza (Spanish for "hope"). Tecoma stans is the official flower of the United States Virgin Islands and the national flower of The Bahamas.
Contents |
[edit] Description
Yellow Trumpetbush is an attractive plant that is cultivated as an ornamental. It has sharply-toothed, lance-shaped green leaves and bears large, showy, bright golden yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. It is drought-tolerant and grows well in warm climates. The flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds[1]. The plant produces pods containing yellow seeds with papery wings. The plant is desirable fodder when it grows in fields grazed by livestock. Yellow Trumpetbush is a ruderal species, readily colonizing disturbed, rocky, sandy, and cleared land and occasionally becoming an invasive weed
The leaves and roots of the plant contain bioactive compounds, especially monoterpenes, which may have medicinal uses.
[edit] Range
Yellow Trumpetbush can be found throughout much of the neotropical Americas, including the Southwestern United States and Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Central America, and South America as far south as northern Argentina. It has been introduced to several other regions, such as southern Africa, the Philippines and Hawaii. It has become a nuisance weed on several Pacific islands, especially in French Polynesia where it is called piti.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ For example Sapphire-spangled Emerald (Amazilia lactea) in Brazil (Baza Mendonça & dos Anjos 2005)
[edit] References
- Baza Mendonça, Luciana & dos Anjos, Luiz (2005): Beija-flores (Aves, Trochilidae) e seus recursos florais em uma área urbana do Sul do Brasil [Hummingbirds (Aves, Trochilidae) and their flowers in an urban area of southern Brazil]. [Portuguese with English abstract] Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 22(1): 51–59. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752005000100007 PDF fulltext
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tecoma stans |
