XVI International Botanical Congess

Tabebuia rosea has been described as having a classic big bang flowering phenology, yet this study shows striking variation both among individuals within a year and in the population between years. We monitored the flowering pattern of 50 trees during 1998 and increased our census to 350 trees in 1999. Individuals varied in the number of flowering episodes, the duration of flowering and the size of the floral display. Three patterns were observed: 1) flowering only for a short period (7 to 10 days), 2) flowering for a several short periods with no or few flowers produced in the interim, and, 3) flowering for an extended period (4 to 6 weeks). Individual trees tended to employ the same flowering strategy in both years, however, the population flowered over a longer period and reached its peak later in 1999 than in 1998.