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Trumpet Flower                 

Tecoma stans

Tronadora, Palo amarillo, Retana

Bignoniacea – Bignonia family

Description

As a tropical holdout in the southwest, Trumpet flower stands out from late spring through summer with its verdant foliage and large, tubular yellow flowers.  It is a deciduous shrub usually reaching 4-6 feet in height.  The leaves are oppositely arranged along the branches.  The leaflets are pinnately formed with 1 terminal leaflet ending the grouping.  Like Desert willow, the seedpod is elongated.  The seeds themselves are surrounded by a winged membrane making air travel more likely.

Distribution

Tecoma stans var. angustata is found in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Desert regions of southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  The northern most reaches of Trumpet flower are determined by low temperatures.  Some plants in southeast Arizona are frozen back to the ground after precipitously low temperatures, after in the spring they quickly rebound.  The plant makes its home on foothills, rocky slopes, and among boulders where some cold protection can be gained.  T. stans var. stans, which primarily differs from var. angustata by its slightly broader leaves, extends from northern Mexico and Florida south to Tropical America.

Chemistry

Monoterpenes, triterpenes, benzenoids, phenylpropanoids, and flavonoids

Medicinal Uses

The tea or tincture of Trumpet flower is very useful taken internally before meals to stimulate appetite and upper digestive process.  It is specific in treating atonic stomach conditions where upon ingesting food or drink there is fullness, distention, and gastric burning.  The plant has a reputation for treating gastritis caused from long-term alcohol use.  Trumpet flower modestly reduces blood sugar levels.  It is most useful for individuals with NIDDM (non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus) who are almost able to control blood sugar elevations with exercise and diet therapies.  Taken between meals Trumpet flower will give an extra push to blood sugar normalcy.

Like most other Bignonia family plants, Trumpet flower is inhibiting to Candida albicans.  If a round of steroids or antibiotics has led to a Candida flare-up, Trumpet flower is of value both topically and internally.  For vaginal Candida infections, soaking in a sitz bath made with the tea along with internal usage is an efficacious plan.  Campsis radicans or Trumpet creeper, a plant native to the southeastern part of the country, is cultivated in warmer parts of the west and can be used similarly in regards to its Candida inhibition.

Indications

NIDDM

Indigestion

Gastritis from alcohol abuse

Candida infections, localized and systemic (internal and external)

Collection

During the spring and summer, collect the branch ends with the leaves and/or the flowers, as they all are medicinally active.

Preparations and Dosage

Herb infusion: 4-8 ounces 3 times daily

Sitz bath: 2-3 times daily

Cautions

Do not use in IDDM (insulin dependent diabetes mellitus).

Copyright © 2006 by Charles W. Kane

This and additional profiles are found in Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest