Guarumo - Cecropia obtusifolia

Guarumo - Cecropia obtusifolia

Trumpet Tree (English) Guarombo (Spanish) Cecropia obtusifolia. Cecropia obtusifolia is a species of plant in the Cecropiaceae family. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama. Common Names are trumpet tree or snakewood tree. In Central America it is known as Guarumo. These trees are characteristic features of many American tropical rainforest ecosystems and may be among the dominant tree species in some places. Being aggressive, rapid growth trees, whose succulent fruits are readily sought by various animals, they tend to be among the first pioneer species to occupy former forest areas cleared for pasture or altered by human activity. Cecropia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the arctiid moth Hypercompe icasia; the Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia) is a North American species however, and thus allopatric with the plant genus. The leaves and buds are also eaten by sloths as their main source of food. But many herbivores avoid these plants: most Cecropia are myrmecophytes, housing dolichoderine ants of the genus Azteca, which will vigorously defend their hostplant against getting eaten. Cecropia fruit, known as snake fingers, are a popular food of diverse animals however, including bats like the Common Fruit Bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) or Carollia species, the Central American Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri oerstedii), and birds like the Green Aracari (Pteroglossus viridis), the Keel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), the Peach-fronted Conure (Aratinga Aurea), the Bare-throated Bellbird (Procnias nudicollis) and particularly nine-primaried oscines. The seeds are not normally digested and thus these animals are important in distributing the trees.