Flowering Trees of Gold Attract Hummingbirds to Lido Area

Hummingbird hovering in flowering Tree of Gold at Longboat Key Club.  Photos by Ken Cox.

Hummingbirds are a gift from God, showing us how beautiful the world can be. In Cincinnati or on Cape Cod, we were happy to get one or two at the feeder.

Here, on Tuesday, I went to the gym at the Longboat Key Club. There’s a flowering Tree of Gold outside the front door, in full blossom. It was full of tiny hummingbirds, perhaps twenty or thirty of them. They were hovering, dipping into the flowers, feasting; some of them resting on a branch. Two flew away at high speed in impossibly close formation.

I hunted for a neighbor with a good camera. Fortunately, Ken Cox was at home. On Wednesday morning, as I picked him up at his house, a ruby-throated hummingbird flitted past his front door. Ken brought a big Canon digital SLR camera with a monstrous lens. There were fewer birds on the tree than the evening before, but still a good dozen or so. Some of Ken’s photos are attached. How he got these little fast-flyers to hold still is amazing.

Other precincts are reporting in. Kathy Dunlap had a few humming birds in her yard. Bob Thill has a couple in the flowering gold tree in front of his house on Morningside Place. A friend on Casey Key reported a tree full on her Facebook page. And, I’m happy to report, there are about a dozen in the shaving brush tree (Bombak ellipticum) outside my office window.

They spend the winter in Mexico, the summer around the mid latitudes of North America. How those little creatures have the endurance to fly across the Gulf of Mexico is baffling. No wonder they’re pigging out on flowers here.

Think about it: we’ve seen so many hummingbirds in the last three days that this must be a rest stop in the northward migration of a huge swarm of tiny birds — a wonderful notion.

~ Bob Garvin 

Additional facts about the Tree of Gold now blooming across Sarasota 
Information courtesy of Selby Garden

Tree-of-Gold  (Trumpet Creeper Family)
Tabebuia aurea (Bignoniaceae)
Origin: South America

Tabebuia aurea, the sister of a recent plant-of-the-week, Tabebuia impetiginosa, is now in the spotlight around town.  Like its sibling, the Tree-of-Gold loses all of its leaves before putting on a show. There is some genetic variance within the species, producing two generally accepted forms, one with green leaves and another with silver leaves. The silver-leaved form is more sought after and gives the tree another, somewhat misleading name; the Silver Trumpet Tree. The flowers of both forms are a brilliant yellow and stand out like a shining sun against our blue Floridian skies. Also like its sibling, Tabebuia aurea is a very popular choice as a street tree here in town. Early spring in Sarasota is usually heralded with a two week long explosion of gold flowers everywhere.

Mature specimens are not too tall; rather, the trees tend to grow into an asymmetrical, leaning form. Their bark is thick, gray, and corky, full of interesting nooks and crannies, which makes them a fantastic host for epiphytic plants. Selby Gardens’ Tree-of-Gold, just west of the Tropical Fruit Garden, is mounted with Cattleya and Dendrobium orchids, some of which are also currently blooming. Many of the street trees around town are adorned with native bromeliads.

The trees tend to put out a second, less intense bloom near the end of the summer. Seeds germinate at a high rate, as our rainy season is in full swing when the long pods split open. The trees can become somewhat weedy, but they are still a beautiful and popular choice for the tropical home landscape.