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Triplaris americana
Also called Tracheophytes
Triplaris americana, the ant tree, is a tall tropical tree in the knotweed family, grown as an ornamental for its pink flowers. The key to growing it is warmth, full light and room for a large root system, since it can reach around 30 m.
Triplaris americana is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by many common names, including ant tree or pau-formiga ("ant tree"), guacamayo, guayabo zancón, hormiguero, palo de Santa María, tachí, vara santa, pau-de-novato, formigueiro, taxizeiro, and devil tree. It is native to Central and South America, occurring from Panama to Brazil. It is also cultivated as an ornamental for its showy pink flowers.
The ant tree grows up to 30 meters in height, with a trunk up to 30 centimeters in diameter and ochrea up to 12 centimeters in length. Its smooth bark is a mottled gray color. The leaves are oval to oblong and measure up to 40 centimeters long by 20 wide, with undersides that are sometimes woolly with brown fibers. The male flowers are around 2 millimeters long, while the female flowers are up to 5 centimeters long.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Triplaris americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
