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A green screen of yellow
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Easy to grow, the Yellow Elder or Yellow Trumpet is easy to propagate.
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The gorgeous flowers and foliage of this hardy plant add colour to any garden.
J.S. GAMBLE, mentions two specimens of Tecoma Stans Linn in his Manual of Indian Timbers (1881) — one from the Dehra Dun Forest School and, the other, from the Agri-Horticultural Gardens, Madras, now the Woodlands drive-in hotel.
The Yellow Elder or Yellow Trumpet is a large shrub, which has elegant foliage and bright yellow flowers. It is found throughout the Tropics and grows in the wild in some places.
A native of South America, now naturalised all over the Tropics, the generic name Tecoma, comes from Tecomaxochitl, the plant's Mexican name, meaning vessel flower, alluding to the trumpet shape of the flowers. Stans means erect.
The genus Tecoma is known for its glandular hairy hydathodes or water-secreting organs. These extra floral nectarines secrete glucose attracting crowds of large black ants.
Commonly grown in gardens and as hedges, the plant's low branching habit, rapid growth and dense foliage make it a beautiful screen of green. The glossy pale green leaves, paler beneath, are long-stalked, odd-pinnately compound, four to eight inches long with five to 11 sessile leaflets. The leaflets are oblong lanceolate. The rachis is minutely winged.
The wedge-shaped base, tapering to a point with serrated edges is one of Nature's unique designs.
The fragrant deep yellow flowers have gamopetalous (joined) corolla, narrow tube at the base, ending in five wavy lobes. Flowers bloom in drooping clusters in abundance throughout the year. The slender brownish fruits form in bunches, each a capsule of about seven inches long, with numerous winged seeds.
Fruits hang on to the plant even after the seeds have flown away.
The older trees produce erect basal shoots in large numbers, bearing flowers. Self propagated seedlings come up in hundreds around the mother plant.
Seeds sown after the rainy season germinate and establish themselves. Cuttings too sprout and grow. Propagation is easy in any type of moisture-retentive, well-drained and humus-rich soil.
J. MANGALARAJ JOHNSON
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