Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_cecropia_obtusifolia
Trumpet Tree
Cecropia obtusifolia
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About Trumpet Tree
Trumpet Tree (Cecropia obtusifolia) is an introduced tree treated as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist. Current extent is unassessed. A wet-tropical pioneer tree native from Mexico to Ecuador. Its open crown and large leaves are characteristic of forest gaps, edges, secondary vegetation, and other high-light disturbed settings. The Bishop Museum 2025 checklist records it as naturalized on Kauaʻi, and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist corroborates Kauaʻi occurrence; present island extent and ecological effects remain unquantified.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Cecropia obtusifolia
- Common names
- Trumpet Tree · Guarumo · Snakewood tree
- Other names
- Cecropia obtusifolia · Trumpet tree · Guarumo · Snakewood tree · Ambaiba obtusifolia · Cecropia mexicana
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current island-wide abundance, occupied habitats, population trajectory, and ecological effects on Kauaʻi are not established by the reviewed checklist evidence.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Male and female trees are separate. Tiny flowers are embedded in cylindrical spikes, and female spikes mature into fleshy multiple fruits containing many minute seeds. Successful reproduction requires both sexes, pollen transfer, viable seed, dispersal, and moist illuminated microsites; Kauaʻi-specific phenology and recruitment are unmeasured.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Trumpet Tree (Cecropia obtusifolia) is an introduced tree treated as naturalized on Kauaʻi by Bishop Museum’s 2025 checklist and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist. Current extent is unassessed. A wet-tropical pioneer tree native from Mexico to Ecuador. Its open crown and large leaves are characteristic of forest gaps, edges, secondary vegetation, and other high-light disturbed settings. The Bishop Museum 2025 checklist records it as naturalized on Kauaʻi, and the 2026 Smithsonian checklist corroborates Kauaʻi occurrence; present island extent and ecological effects remain unquantified.
Sources and further reading
- https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:850947-1
- https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000592286
- https://rngr.net/publications/ttsm/species/PDF.2003-12-08.1432/at_download/file
- https://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/publications/pdf/tr75.pdf
- https://editedimages.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Imadaetal.2025Hawaiianvascularplants.xlsx
- https://doi.org/10.5479/si.32124043