91-TECOMA STANS (L.) H.B.K.
Local name: Yellow trumpet flower
Family: Bignoniaceae
Location: Principal’s house
Characters: Tecoma stans is a semi-evergreen shrub that can grow to a small tree 6- 9 meters high. It features opposite odd-pinnate green leaves, with 3-13 serrate, 8-10 cm long leaflets. The leaflets, glabrous on both sides, have a lanceolate blade 2–10 cm long and 1–4 cm wide, with a long acuminate apex and a wedge-shaped base. The large, showy, golden yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers are in clusters at the ends of branches. The corolla of the flower is bell- to funnel-shaped, five-lobed, often reddish-veined in the throat and is 3.5 to 8.5 cm long. Flowering takes place all year round. The fruits, narrow capsules, arise from two carpels and are up to 25 cm long. A fruit contains many yellow seeds with membranopus wings; when the fruit opens upon ripening, these seed are spread by the wind (anemochory). The flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Apart from sexually by seed, Tecoma stans can also be reproduced asexually by stem cuttings.
General use: The wood of Tecoma stans is used in rustic architecture like bahareque, for the construction of furniture and canoes, or as firewood or charcoal. It is a medicinal plant used against diabetes and against diseases of the digestive system, among other uses. The plant is desirable fodder when it grows in fields grazed by livestock. It is a very potent anti-venom against cobra venom, used by Pakistani old medicine. It is proved to be better than antiserum, the paste of this plant's leaves are applied topically on the cobra bite. Its bio-chemicals bind with the cobra venom enzymes thus effectively inhibiting the venom.