(Caetê-bravo, Stromanthe )

Grown for its colorful leaves, Stromanthe sanguinea ‘Triostar’, also known as 'Tricolor', is a member of the prayer plant family. It is a cultivated selection of a species native to the rain forests of Brazil. It is a tropical evergreen perennial that slowly spreads to form clumps.

Its dark green leaves are variegated with white and cream, backed with hot pink and arise from thick rhizomes (underground stems). They are oblong to lance-shaped and track the sun, or avoid it, during the...

(Medusa-Flower, Poison Arrow Vine, Spider Tresses)

Likely not to turn you to stone, the small, star-like flowers of the Medusa-flower will stop you in your tracks as you marvel at their hair-like, pendent, sticky strands. A semi-evergreen tender vine from central and western Africa, it drops its leaves only when there is a pronounced dry period. Its foliage is glossy green and held in pair along the vining or clambering stems. Each leaf is simple (no lobes), oval with a tooth-tip and often have edges that fold slightly upward to reveal the lighter...

(Queen Palm)

Queen palm is a large solitary palm native to south-central South America with a slender, exceptionally straight gray trunk. The glossy, bright green fronds can drape to the ground. Ivory-colored flowers give rise to orange dates which may attract bats and insects. It clings onto its dead fronds and with lots of fruits, it is a fairly messy plant.

Queen palm requires full sun and well-drained to wet soils and is intolerant of alkaline soils where nutrient deficiencies are expected. It has the...

(Buff Hazelwood, Cochinchine Sweetleaf)

A tropical evergreen tree traditionally used to treat type-2 diabetes in southern Asia, cochinchine sweetleaf attains an upright oval habit with a long, straight trunk. In some situations it may remain more in shrubby form. It is native to the Western Ghat region of India as well as across the archipelago of Southeast Asia to Melanesia and northern Australia (including a handful of natural varieties across this expansive range). It inhabits both lowland and mid-elevation humid forests.

The bark...

(Blue Berry, Horse Sugar, Martinique Sweetleaf, Whitewood)

Chew on a leaf of this tree and enjoy a sugary pick-me-up. The Martinique sweetleaf, amusingly also known as horse sugar, is a small evergreen tree with fragrant flowers and blue-black fruits. It's native across the forests of the Caribbean Basin, including both the islands and eastern Central America. It attains a rounded but spreading canopy. The timber is used in construction or as fuel. When sold as lumber it's identified as whitewood or candlewood.

The big elliptical leaves are glossy green...

(American Evergreen, Arrowhead Vine)

Its lush evergreen foliage and tough constitution make arrowhead vine a popular choice for the house or conservatory. Native to tropical America, this cold-tender plant forms a compact shrub when young, but later develops climbing stems with aerial roots.

Young plants have medium to dark green oval leaves with heart-shaped bases. Older plants produce arrowhead-shaped or compound leaves, often with gray-green markings. Mature landscape plants may bear creamy, hood-like blooms in summer, followed...

(Caribbean Trumpet Tree, Golden Tabebuia, Tree-of-gold)

Corky striped bark and a picturesque habit make this small, cold-tender South American tree interesting year round, but the dense clusters of large golden yellow flowers in late winter and spring is a sight to behold. The large pompon-like heads of ruffled trumpet-shaped blooms envelop the tree just as most or all of its leaves drop. It refoliates fully again shortly after bloom. Flowering may recur in moist summer spells. Dark brown bean-shaped seed pods follow the flowers. The compound, hand-shaped,...

(Apamate, White Tabebuia, Yellow Poui)

Attractive hand-like leaves and brilliant yellow to golden trumpet-shaped flowers makes the yellow poui a magnificent specimen tree for tropical gardens. This primarily evergreen tree is native to the sunny forests of northern South America, from the Amazon Basin to the Caribbean. It grows on cliffs or woods in dry to moist, nutrient-poor soils. Its corky tan bark is visually appealing. This tree, sometimes a large bushy shrub, attains an open, rounded canopy.

The compound leaves look like hands,...

(Golden Trumpet Tree, Yellow Bark Tree)

One of the most widespread yellow-flowering trumpet trees in Tropical America, the yellow bark tree produces fragrant, yellow flowers in early to late spring. This deciduous, slow-growing tree is native from Honduras southward into Brazil in rather dry forests. It develops a rounded but wide-spreading canopy, often with a twisted, interesting trunk. The bark is tan-gray, with a yellow underbark (the reason for its common name). The lumber is dense and heavy, popular for use as outdoor utility poles...

(Mayflower, Pink Poui, Rosy Trumpet Tree)

The spring costume of this vigorous subtropical tree is festive and feminine: abundantly showy and rosy pink. The pink poui or rosy trumpet tree is indeed one of the showiest for a garden, rivaling the deeper-colored blooms of the ipe (Handroanthus impetiginosus). This briefly deciduous forest tree is native from southern Mexico to Venezuela and Colombia. Rosy trumpet tree is prized as a timber tree, yielding a dense wood used in construction, as fuel or manufacturing musical instruments,...