Where the yellow trumpet tree is a lightning strike, the pink one is a season. The roble de sabana flowers in pale pink and lilac through the dry months, on leafless branches, and it lines roads and squares across the province.
Where you’ll see it
Roadsides, town streets, gardens and pasture. It is one of the most planted trees in Guanacaste and a good one, tough, fast and lovely.
What to know
Roble means oak, which it is not; the name comes from the hard, useful timber. The pink trumpets open over weeks rather than days and fall in drifts, so a parked car under one comes back decorated. The bark is grey and rough, the leaves are compound with five leaflets, and the tree is worth planting if you have the room.
