342 



BlGNONIACEAE. 



Tecoma. Yellow Elder. 

 (Family Bignoniaceae). 



Soft-wooded shrubs or half- 

 shrubs: deciduous. Stems some- 

 what quadrangularly compressed 

 at the nodes, rather slender: pith 

 relatively large, roundish, pale 

 brown, continuous. Buds super- 

 posed with the upper somewhat 

 stalked, flattened-ovoid, with 2 

 exposed scales. Leaf-scars oppo- 

 site, elliptical, or concave at top, 

 low: bundle-trace 1, compound, 

 following the contour of the leaf- 

 scar: stipule-scars lacking, but the 

 leaf-scars transversely connected 

 by puberulent lines. (Stenolo- 

 bium). 



Numerous misunderstandings 

 seem to have arisen as to the 

 earlier generic limitations estab- 

 lished in the Bignoniaceae, and 

 the trumpet creeper, now called 

 Campsis, is still known to most people as a Tecoma, while 

 these low bushy plants are coming to be known as species 

 of Stenolobium. They are not hardy in the North, but their 

 compound leaves and large yellow flowers give them an at- 

 tractive appearance in the Southwest. Apparently they pro- 

 duce medicinally active organic compounds. 

 Glabrous: twigs brown, with orange lenticels. (1). T. stans. 

 Gray-tomentulose. T. mollis. 



