The Golden Trumpet or Golden Goddess tree,the national tree of Venezuala, grows usually to 8 or 10 metres with hairy, olive-green, compound leaves. The profusion of flowers appears on bare branches in repeated bursts through Spring. This flowering period coincides with the tropical dry season just before the midsummer monsoon whose drenching warm rain would germinate the ripe seed.
The long, bean-like seed pods are covered in highly tactile velvety green fur. When ripe, in dry weather, the pods split to release hundreds of tightly-packed paper-thin seeds that float away on the breeze. They lie on the ground like shreds of tissue paper until the rain moistens them when germination takes only about three days.
They grow fast if they have plenty of water and rich soil but are also tolerant of dry conditions once established. In fact they flower best in a dry year.
Tabebuias can be grown from seed or cutting readily and need a moderately sheltered sunny position to do well and will flower within two or three years.
The Tabebuias are a big family of about a hundred species of very colourful flowering trees spread all across South and Central America. Many of them are yellow but some are pink, red or white. They belong to the Bignonia family which includes the jacaranda and many trumpet-flowered vines such as our rare native Tecomanthe and the Australian Pandoreas. Their timber is a highly prized hardwood which has led to serious destruction of forests in some areas to extract it.
From my experience they need to be grown in open sunny positions otherwise they have a tendency toward leginess and pruning seems to have little advantageous effect in shaping the tree.Apart from that the seeds hanging on the tree in profusion can be a brief but untidy feature
Nevertheless Tabebuia Chrysantha is a truly spectacular tree and well worth planting,being easily grown from seed.
More Tabebuia chrysantha images can be found in the
Yarrenbool Gallery.
Beautiful Flowering Trees of The WorldBlack Diamond Images Flowering Trees CollectionAustralian Rainforest Flowering TreesAustralian Rainforest Plants Trees and FungiField Guide Flowering Trees of the WorldDatabase of Flowering TreesBEAUTIFUL FLOWERING TREES
