Tecoma stans angustata is in the Bignonia family Bignoniaceae and there are a bunch of species of Tecoma starting here in the borderlands with our species and then heading south into the Americas where there’s maybe a dozen more, not to mention many cultivars. All with flowers that range from yellow to orange or red or even colors in between. Pretty tempting, huh?
The genus Tecoma comes from the Nahuatl word tecomaxochitl…what a marvelous mouthful…and it’s a common name for a number of plants with tubular and usually yellow or golden flowers. Now you know.
I don’t know when or where the common name esperanaza came into being, but I love it. I’m guessing you knew that.
All my photos of esperanza are 35mm slides and I took a mess of them over the many pre-digital years. So the photo used here is from the website https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/ and taken by the botanist Sue Carnahan. A big thank you to her. I promise to get some of my own photos soon…there are some beautiful tecomas in the Mule Mountains. Hmm, sounds like a quest to me.
