Tecoma

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Starr 071024-0141 Tecoma stans.jpg


Plant Characteristics
Cultivation
Scientific Names

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Tecoma >


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Tecoma is a genus of 14 species of shrubs or small trees in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae. Twelve species are from the Americas, while the other two species are African. The American species range from the extreme southern United States through Central America and the Antilles south through Andean South America to northern Argentina. The generic name is derived from the Nahuatl word tecomaxochitl, which was applied by the indigenous peoples of Mexico to plants with tubular flowers.[1]


Read about Tecoma in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Tecoma (abridged from the Mexican name Tecomaxochitl). Including Stenolobium. Bignoniaceae. Ornamental shrubs, grown for their showy flowers.

Upright plants with herbaceous shoots: lvs. opposite, odd-pinnate, rarely simple; lfts. serrate, membranous: fls. in terminal panicles or racemes; calyx tubular-campanulate; corolla funnelform or funnelform-campanulate; stamens included, with diverging anther- cells and enlarged foliaceous connective; disk cupulate, crenate: caps. linear, with leathery valves; seeds narrow-elliptic, with 2 large thin wings.—About 5 species from Fla. and Texas to Argentina. The trumpet-vine, commonly referred to Tecoma, will now be found under Campsis.

The tecomas are upright shrubs with pinnate deciduous or subpersistent foliage and large and showy usually yellow flowers in terminal clusters. They stand but little frost and are well suited for cultivation in Florida and southern California. Propagation is by seeds which are usually freely produced and by greenwood cuttings under glass.

The yellow elder, T. stans, grows exceedingly well on high pine-land and is perfectly at home in Florida, attaining an immense size if well fertilized and mulched, dense masses 18 to 25 feet high and as much through being not at all rare. This tecoma is the glory of the south Florida gardens in autumn, as is the beautiful Bauhinia purpurea in April. No shrub is better adapted for the new settlers in the sandy pine-land gardens. When covered with its large fragrant flowers it is visited by numberless hummingbirds and insects. Owing to its rapid growth and dense foliage from the ground, the yellow elder is highly valued as screen for unsightly fences and buildings. This tecoma ripens its seed so abundantly that hundreds of seedlings come up around the old plant. The value of this shrub, blooming so late in autumn, cannot be overestimated. T. mollis, incorrectly known to the trade as T. stans var. velutina, also does well, but being a native of Guatemala it is much less hardy than the former. The growth is more upright and stiff, the leaflets are much larger, less serrate, and much darker green and the flowers, which are borne in terminal panicles, are smaller and without fragrance and the color is a much lighter yellow. It also flowers several weeks earlier than T. stans. The foliage looks crimped and often blackish, being attacked by a kind of aphis and by several fungi. T. Smithii is said to be a hybrid between T. mollis and Tecomaria capensis, raised near Melbourne, Australia, by Edwin Smith. The plant comes true from seed, and seedlings flower when about a year old, beginning to open their large clusters of yellow and reddish trumpets in April and continuing with short intervals until cut down by frost in December.

T. aesculifolia, DC.-Tabebuia aesculifolia.—T. amboinensis, Blume. Evergreen climbing shrub: lvs. odd-pinnate with usually 5 elliptic-obovate lfts. 3-3 1/2 in. long: fls. tubular-funnelform, red, 3-4 in. long, in lateral racemes. Amboina. Once offered by John Saul, but has probably now disappeared from cult. It is not a true Tecoma and belongs possibly to Pandorea.—T. australis, R. Br.- Pandorea australis.—T. Brycei, N. E. Br.-Pandorea Brycei.— T. capensis, Lindl.- Tecomaria capensis.—T. chinensis, Koch - Campsis chinensis.—T. filicifolia, Nichols.- Pandorea australis.— T. fulva, Don - Tecomaria fulva.—T. grandiflora, Del.-Campsis chinensis.—T. hybrida, Jouin - Campsis hybrida.—T. intermedia, Schelle - Campsis hybrida. — T. jasminoides, Lindl. - Pandorea iasminoides. — T. leucoxylon, Mart. – Tabebuia triphylla. — T. Mackenii, W. Wats. – Pandorea Ricasoliana. — T. pentantha, offered by the S. Calif. Acclim. Assoc., is unknown to the writer. — T. pentaphylla, Juss. - Tabebuia pentaphylla. — T. radicans, Juss. - Campsis radicans. — T. Reginae Sabae, Franceschi - Pandorea Brycei. — T. Ricasoliana, Tanfani - Pandorea Ricasoliana. — T. rosea, Bertol.- Tabebuia rosea. — T. serratifolia, Don - Tabebuia serratifolia. — T. shirensis, Baker - Tecomaria shirensis. — T. spectabilis, Planch. - Tabebuia spectabilis. — T. Thunbergii, Sieb. – Campsis chinensis var. Thunbergii. — T. valdiviana, Phil. – Campsidium chilense. — T. Whytei, C. H. Wright – Tecomaria shirensis. CH


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.


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References

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  1. Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names. 4 R-Z. Taylor & Francis US. p. 2637. ISBN 9780849326783. http://books.google.com/books?id=2ndDtX-RjYkC&. 
  2. "Tecoma Juss.". ITIS Standard Reports. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved on 2010-03-07.