Flowering trees are well-known throughout Guanacaste, the most famous of which is probably the Cortez Amarillo. A native dry-tropical forest tree, Cortez Amarillo spends a few, impressively synchronized days each year displaying fabulous yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers that attract animals from all over the forest. Typically this occurs at the end of the dry season; one last hurrah before putting leaves out again and beginning the rainy season climb into the canopy.

The flowers couldn’t come at a better time for many of the animals that eat them or collect the pollen and nectar for food. With most other trees still bare and in a kind of hibernation, the bright yellow trees are unmistakable across the landscape. Certainly the animals must view these displays and hurry through the forest before the all-you-can-eat buffet is over…in about two days. The blooms last only a short few days before they fall gently to the forest floor. Many lots in Pueblo Verde have Cortez Amarillo trees growing on them. Watch this video of howler monkeys feasting on the flowers, taken from Lot 9.