Species
+

Handroanthus chrysanthus (Jacq.) S.O.Grose

Flor amarillo, Golden Trumpet-tree, Kal wö́rkua kokóna̱, Köbá

Climate known 58 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Handroanthus chrysanthus, formerly classified as Tabebuia chrysantha, also known as araguaney in Venezuela, as guayacán in Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, as chonta quiru in Peru, as tajibo in Bolivia, and as ipê-amarelo in Brazil, is a native tree of the intertropical broadleaf deciduous forests of South America above the Tropic of Capricorn. On May 29, 1948, Handroanthus chrysanthus was declared the National Tree of Venezuela due to its status as an emblematic native species of extraordinary beauty. Its deep yellow resembles that of the Venezuelan flag.

Text from Wikipedia, “Handroanthus chrysanthus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Handroanthus

Handroanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. It consists of 30 species of trees, known in Latin America by the common names poui, pau d'arco, or ipê. The latter sometimes appears as epay or simply ipe (unaccented) in English. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Handroanthus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bignoniaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) S.O.Grose
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize +12
Wild records
683 in range· 244 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Mar, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1796mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 227 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1796 mm a year, wettest October at 227 mm, driest January at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Tecoma chysantha (Jacq.) DC.; Tecoma grandis Appun; Tecoma spectabilis Griseb., 1853.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1393 mm of 1796 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 0.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1796 mm a year, wettest October at 227 mm, driest January at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1796 mm a year at the habitat, 1393 mm of it May to November. Wettest month October at 227 mm, driest January at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 903 mm to 3444 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.1 °C, the absolute minimum 16.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.6 °C in December (across the envelope cells 14.2 °C to 23.5 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jul to 30 °C in Mar; mean night from 22 °C in Dec to 23 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1796 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 432 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°37.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–36RH 61–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 432 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 23–3329 / 24–3430 / 24–3430 / 24–3229 / 24–3228 / 24–3228 / 24–3229 / 24–3229 / 24–3129 / 23–3028 / 23–3029 / 23–31
Night °C22 / 14–2422 / 14–2423 / 14–2523 / 15–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2422 / 16–2422 / 15–2422 / 14–24
Rain mm34 / 10–15756 / 10–19289 / 9–240155 / 16–338216 / 44–429188 / 49–422182 / 42–402203 / 35–376217 / 62–370227 / 58–404160 / 23–34369 / 17–200
DLI33 / 27–3635 / 29–3836 / 30–4234 / 28–4531 / 26–4231 / 24–3833 / 25–3834 / 28–3833 / 29–3731 / 27–3530 / 26–3331 / 26–34
RH %62 / 53–6961 / 52–6961 / 54–6965 / 58–7067 / 59–7167 / 60–7266 / 59–7166 / 59–7167 / 60–7167 / 60–7267 / 59–7264 / 57–70

Each figure is the median across the 432 grid cells holding the 674 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1708:2106 (4.575, -74.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 432 distinct grid cells holding the 674 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1708:2106 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 4.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -1393 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 397 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru· introduced: Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker9.437, -74.131 · in the densest population, 363 records (53% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 683 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 244 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 159 km away. 79 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 683 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Handroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthusHandroanthus chrysanthus

Photographs: (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Handroanthus chrysanthus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Tree Circumference Changes and Species-Specific Growth Recovery After Extreme Dry Events in a Montane Rainforest in Southern Ecuador
Volker Raffelsbauer, Susanne Spannl, Kelly Peña, Darwin Pucha-Cofrep (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Potential impacts to dry forest species distribution under two climate change scenarios in southern Ecuador
Nikolay Aguirre, Paúl Eguiguren, Juan Maita, Tatiana Ojeda Luna (2017) · Neotropical Biodiversity
Estado de conservación de los bosques secos de la provincia de Loja, Ecuador
Zhofre Aguirre Mendoza, Gretel Geada López (2017) · Arnaldoa
Comprehensive recycling of fresh municipal sewage sludge to fertilize garden plants and achieve low carbon emission: A pilot study
Xianke Lin, Canming Chen, Huashou Li, Liang Hei (2022) · Frontiers in Environmental Science
Bosque seco de la parroquia Mangahurco, Zapotillo, Loja, estudio de su composición florística, estructura y endemismo
Zhofre Aguirre Mendoza, Carmen Aponte Córdova, Wilson Quizhpe Coronel (2021) · Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar
Patrones de la vegetación y tipos de uso de la tierra en el valle del Patía
Hernando Rafael Vergara Varela (2015) · Colombia Forestal
Parmentin C, a new phenolic glycoside from Handroanthus chrysanthus flowers
Wuttichai Jaidee, Narawadee Rujanapun, Thidarat Duangyod, Subhadip Banerjee (2025) · Phytochemistry Letters
Age-specific and species-specific tree response to seasonal drought in tropical dry forests
Emily Santos, Xavier Haro‐Carrión, J. Oshun (2022) · The Science of The Total Environment
Inventario florístico de plantas vasculares en fragmentos de bosque seco tropical en el departamento Magdalena, Colombia
Fran Herazo Vitola, Dairo Enrique Carrascal Prasca, Maziel Herrera Castillo, Dayana Valencia-Cuéllar (2021) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Diagnóstico socioeconómico de sistemas agroforestales en el recinto San Francisco de la parroquia El Anegado
Alfredo Jiménez González, Roberth Joshua Carvajal Nunura, Jahir Anibal Ponce Muñiz, Alberto Cabrera-Verdesoto (2024) · Bosques Latitud Cero
Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Handroanthus chrysanthus (Bignoniaceae)
Hongze Liao, Manman Sun, Hao Zhou, Xiu Liu (2022) · Mitochondrial DNA Part B

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Handroanthus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 155 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.