Post your Trumpet Tree (Cecropia obtusifolia)

[bubba]

[bubba]

[mnorell]

Here's my tree in the Palm Springs area...it has done well here, though it did not like its first winter in the ground, which was a very elongated chilly winter ('22-'23) with a rather cool spring as well. It is in a location that only gets a few hours of morning sun in the low-sun months (it is in front of a tall northeast-facing Ficus hedge), and in that winter it suffered some cosmetic damage when the temps hovered right around the freezing point, though there was no frost. I was concerned about it at the time because a number of small-diameter holes appeared in its trunk...and this appeared to be cold-related and not insect-related. Cecropia is an odd genus with hollow stems and is colonized by ants in Mexico/Central America, but nothing of the sort has happened to this one, and the holes have mostly closed up. It suffered a little in the extra-hot and extra-long summer this year but it is continually putting on new leaves; and the old yellowed or browned leaves either fell off or I removed them. All in all it's a very enjoyable tree to me and I really like its overall resilience, its cheery green foliage and its Schefflera-like leaf-structure. I'm surprised it is not grown in the southwest, though I'm not sure how well it would do in the much cooler climate at the coast. I know it's considered an invasive weed in wet areas of Hawai'i and is highly gregarious in those conditions...and I rarely saw any in Florida, I remember one growing alongside the Overseas Highway in the Middle Keys and I believe I've seen references to it growing in the Orlando area, but I wonder if it's considered a problem there. I imagine it would be a perceived threat anywhere that gets regular rain and sustained warmth, in the absence of freezing temps.