Species
+

Tabebuia aurea (Silva Manso) Benth. & Hook.fil. ex S.Moore

Alcornoque, Caribbean Trumpet-Tree, Caribbean trumpet tree, Caribbean trumpet-tree

Climate known 86 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

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.

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

About the genus · Tabebuia

Tabebuia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. 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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tabebuia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bignoniaceae
Described by
(Silva Manso) Benth. & Hook.fil. ex S.Moore
Native to
Bolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central +7
Wild records
964 in range· 846 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Oct, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1215mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jan 200 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–39DLI
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, November to March at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1215 mm a year, wettest January at 200 mm, driest July at 14 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.6 °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 Bignonia aurea Silva Manso; Bignonia squamellulosa DC.; Couralia caraiba (Mart.) Corr.Mello; Couralia caraiba (Mart.) Corr.Mello ex Stellfeld; Gelseminum caraiba (Mart.) Kuntze and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to March at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.3 °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 (869 mm of 1215 mm) falls in November to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °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, southern 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 1215 mm a year, wettest January at 200 mm, driest July at 14 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1215 mm a year at the habitat, 869 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 200 mm, driest July at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 567 mm to 1766 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 27 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 39 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 12.6 °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 12.6 °C, the absolute minimum 6.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 13.8 °C to 22.1 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.6 °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: 53 to 63% 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 27 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Oct; mean night from 18 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1215 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 704 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°42.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–39RH 53–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 704 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 °C30 / 27–3330 / 27–3230 / 27–3229 / 27–3128 / 25–3128 / 24–3127 / 24–3129 / 25–3331 / 27–3431 / 28–3431 / 27–3430 / 27–33
Night °C22 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 18–2320 / 16–2319 / 14–2218 / 14–2219 / 15–2220 / 17–2322 / 18–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–24
Rain mm200 / 55–301166 / 61–251177 / 103–28098 / 66–20054 / 19–15323 / 4–11714 / 2–9517 / 3–6241 / 4–8599 / 9–150142 / 14–225184 / 33–304
DLI37 / 32–4137 / 32–4134 / 31–3933 / 29–3530 / 24–3327 / 23–3229 / 24–3433 / 28–3838 / 33–4239 / 36–4439 / 35–4437 / 32–42
RH %63 / 55–6662 / 56–6663 / 58–6761 / 58–6659 / 54–6558 / 50–6555 / 48–6453 / 46–6354 / 48–6157 / 51–6260 / 52–6362 / 53–66

Each figure is the median across the 704 grid cells holding the 947 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 2124:2475 (-16.225, -56.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.7 °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 704 distinct grid cells holding the 947 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2124:2475 (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 -16.00_-56.250, lapse-corrected -35 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 129 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.
NativeBolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-9.191, -39.637 · in the densest population, 470 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 964 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 846 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 283 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 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 4° block of the 964 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aureaTabebuia aurea

Photographs: (c) Wallace Carneiro Almeida, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Romi Galeota Lencina, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Franz Anthony, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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 Tabebuia aurea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungal Planet description sheets: 1284–1382
P.W. Crous, E R Osieck, Ž Jurjević, J Boers (2021) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Structural characterization of cuboidal α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles synthesized by a facile approach
H Sridevi, Manasa Bhat, P. Senthil Kumar, N. Manoj Kumar (2023) · Applied Nanoscience
Valor de uso e estrutura da vegetação lenhosa às margens do riacho do Navio, Floresta, PE, Brasil
José Serafim Feitosa Ferraz, Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque, Isabelle Maria Jacqueline Meunier (2006) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Armazenamento e germinação de sementes de Tabebuia aurea (manso) Benth. & Hook. f. ex. S. Moore
Edna Lopes Cabral, Dilosa Carvalho de Alencar Barbosa, Eliana Akie Simabukuro (2003) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Relaxed random walk model coupled with ecological niche modeling unravel the dispersal dynamics of a Neotropical savanna tree species in the deeper Quaternary
Rosane Garcia Collevatti, Levi Carina Terribile, Suelen Gonçalves Rabelo, Matheus S. Lima‐Ribeiro (2015) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Efeitos dos extrativos e cinzas na resistência natural de quatro madeiras a cupins xilófagos
Juarez Benigno Paes, Pedro Nicó de Medeiros Neto, Carlos Roberto de Lima, María de Fátima Freitas (2013) · CERNE
Caracterização morfológica, viabilidade e vigor de sementes de Tabebuia aurea (Silva Manso) Benth. & Hook. f. ex. S. Moore
Ademir Kleber Morbeck de Oliveira, Eloty Dias Schleder, Sílvio Fávero (2006) · Revista Árvore
Stable silver nanoparticles synthesis using Tabebuia aurea leaf extract for efficient water treatment: A sustainable approach to environmental remediation
Raja Selvaraj, Vasundra Nagendran, Thivaharan Varadavenkatesan, Louella Concepta Goveas (2024) · Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Fire, flood and monodominance of Tabebuia aurea in Pantanal
Daniel Armando Manrique-Pineda, Evaldo Benedito de Souza, Antônio Conceição Paranhos Filho, César Claudio Cáceres Encina (2020) · Forest Ecology and Management
Responses of woody Cerrado species to rising atmospheric CO2 concentration and water stress: gains and losses
João Paulo Souza, Nayara Magry Jesus Melo, Eduardo Gusmão Pereira, Alessandro Dias Halfeld (2016) · Functional Plant Biology
Crescimento de plantas jovens de Tabebuia aurea (Manso) Benth. & Hook. f. ex S. Moore submetidas a estresse hídrico
Edna Lopes Cabral, Dilosa Carvalho de Alencar Barbosa, Eliana Akie Simabukuro (2004) · Acta Botanica Brasilica

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 Tabebuia 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 123 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.