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Tecoma stans (Yellow Bells) - An evergreen, densely branched shrub that will grow 15-20 feet tall (can be trained into a tree) with the bark on the main trunk a light brown that becomes corky with age. It has bright green opposite leaves, which are pinnately compound with 2 to 3 inch long oval leaflets that are sharply pointed with toothed edges. The leave are borne on very short petioles and are slightly hairy on the undersides along the midrib and in the vein axils. The blooms appear in flushes throughout the growing season. With 1 to 2 inche long tubular flowers that hang in showy clusters at the branch tips and bending the branches into arches with their weight. They are followed by 8 in long string bean-like pods.
Plant in full sun, needs little water once established and it tolerates a wide range of soil conditions and drought. Cold tolerance varies by the source but the plants long in cultivation in Southern California have gone through the cold spells of 1990 (18° F) and 2007 (25° F) and rebounded with warmer temperatures of spring with the smaller stems badly damaged.
Tecoma stans can be found in the wild growing on rocky slopes near San Antonio and in the Trans-Pecos, north into New Mexico and Arizona and south to Florida and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands - it is the official floral emblem of the US Virgin Islands. It has also naturalized in other locations such as on the islands of Hawaii. Other common names include Yellow Trumpet Vine and Yellow Elder.
The information about Tecoma stans that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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