Home / Browse / Tabebuia / Pink Trumpet-tree

Pink Trumpet-tree — photo by ronaldo_alves1

iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image

Bignoniaceae family

Pink Trumpet-tree Tabebuia rosea

Pink Trumpet-tree is an introduced perennial tree, found in Puerto Rico. It grows to 134 ft.

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Pink Trumpet-tree is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Douglas Maple (var. douglasii)

Acer glabrum var. douglasii

Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage

Tallo — Jucker et al. 2025 (CC BY 4.0) — wild crown width — Mature width

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

McKenzie et al. 2025 — community-science image analysis (MIT) — Flower colour

Height: 134 ft
Mature width: ≈ 55 ft wide wild/forest-grown — open-grown specimens spread wider
Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Deciduous/evergreen broadleaf
Flower colour: Pink AI AI image-analysis of community-science photos (~87% expert agreement) — not a botanical record

In the garden

Canopy layer — Sits in the canopy of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

derived roles

AI = read by an AI vision model · DERIVED = a computed estimate, not a direct measurement. The “How we know this” section below details each.

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

❧ Caterpillar hosts Documented caterpillar host

Recorded feeding on Tabebuia in North America, including:

Automeris io · giant silk moth Epinotia lantana · leafroller moth

Hyblaea puera

Streptopalpia minusculalis · snout moth

Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).

✦ Bees 25 bee visitors

25 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Pink Trumpet-tree — the 12 most-recorded:

+ 6 more bees →

Cephalotrigona zexmeniae

Epicharis albofasciata

Mesoplia rufipes

Centris nitida

Lithurgopsis planifrons

Asperplebeia moureana

Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →

Wildlife & visitors 7 birds · 1 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Pink Trumpet-tree — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 7 birds species (fruit, seed, browse) — the most-recorded:

Icterus spurius · Orchard Oriole

Amazilia rutila · Cinnamon Hummingbird

Amazona autumnalis · Red-Lored Amazon

Icterus galbula · Baltimore Oriole

Icterus mesomelas · Yellow-Tailed Oriole

Icterus pustulatus · Streak-Backed Oriole

1 adult butterfly & moth species is recorded nectaring at its flowers:

Madoryx oiclus

Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (3) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Flower colour Derived

McKenzie et al. assigned each species a flower colour with a GPT-4V vision model over iNaturalist photos. We use the confident tier plus a separately-labelled lower-confidence top-up (mostly inconspicuous green/brown flowers), and render it as a small tint — never as an asserted fact, and kept out of the written synopsis.

Honest limits: AI image inference (~87% expert agreement on the confident tier); a decorative, confidence-tiered indicator, not a measured trait.

McKenzie, P., Berardi, A.E., Hopkins, R. (2025). flower_color_phenology (MIT).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (20) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)

[06] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[07] Ecological value — GloBI

[08] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[09] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[10] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[12] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)

[13] Mature width — Tallo — Jucker et al. 2025 (CC BY 4.0) — wild crown width

[14] Flower colour — McKenzie et al. 2025 — community-science image analysis (MIT)

[15] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[16] Human uses — Dr. Duke's Phytochemical & Ethnobotanical Databases (USDA, CC0)

[17] Bee visitors — Noori et al. 2026 (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) · via GloBI

[18] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI

[19] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)

[20] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

1 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below and in Bees & wildlife.

Caterpillar host 3

Flower-visitor value derived 4

Recorded flower-visitor breadth — observations, not a nectar measurement. open data

⚠ invasive (US) — avoid

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 3/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Invasive in the U.S.

Recorded in 1 state.

Open occurrence records place it in 2 counties across 2 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Introduced — Puerto Rico

Recorded in 1 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Yes — invasive

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Documented human uses Dr. Duke's

7 use-records

Historically recorded for

BoilDiarrheaDysenteryFungicidePharyngitisVulneraryWound

A historical record of how this plant has been used — not medical or dietary advice, and not a claim that it is effective or safe. Many plants are toxic; never ingest or treat with a wild plant without expert guidance and a confirmed identification. Dr. Duke's →

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density medium

0.51 g/cm³

moderate-density wood

Seed mass medium

31 mg

small seed — straightforward to sow

Leaf nitrogen average

17.4 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build thin & fast

Thin & fast

thin, low-cost leaves — a fast, light-hungry build built for quick growth (measured leaf area per weight 16.5 mm²/mg)

Leaf size large

Large

large leaves (measured leaf area ~86 cm²) — a coarse, shade-casting texture

Mycorrhiza obligate

Arbuscular (AM)

partners with arbuscular fungi — the commonest symbiosis; helps reach phosphorus & water, aiding drought resilience

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.51 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 31 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 17.4 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 16.5 mm²/mg)

Photosynthesis — the standard “C3” pathway most plants use, most active in cooler, moister, moderate-light conditions. (pathway C3)

Mycorrhiza AM — the root–fungus partnership it forms (AM = most plants; ECM = most forest trees; ERM = heaths; NM = none). Trades sugars for water & nutrients via shared soil networks.

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Pink Trumpet-tree Tabebuia rosea

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

Related plants