It’s that beautiful time again when many golden trumpet trees blossom in Bukidnon, particularly in Malaybalay City, the capital of the province. The golden trumpet trees, previously known by its scientific name Tabebuia chrysotricha (now Handroanthus chrysotrichus), have most definitely garnered attention and interest not only among Bukidnon locals but from tourists and guests alike.

In fact, there have been some golden trumpet tree planting activities in various areas around Malaybalay, in an effort to continue this lovely tree’s legacy for current and future generations.

The golden trumpet trees in Bukidnon are in full bloom and one of the numerous personalities who couldn’t resist having a photo taken with the trees as background is Bukidnon 2nd District Congressman Atty. John Flores. Flores, on his social media accounts, even urged the public to go and enjoy the trees while they’re still in bloom.

Flores had this photo taken at Barangay Aglayan, Malaybalay. For commuters, you can spot many trees at the Barangay San Jose area, too.

Along with the golden shower or golden trumpet tree blossoms also comes the story behind how these lovely species “arrived” on Bukidnon soil.

This was the story from Dr. Darl Intong Cabonce, son of Antonio L. Intong, former Schools Division Superintendent:

In 1963-1964, my late papa Antonio Intong brought the seeds from Honolulu, Hawaii. He was then a Fulbright scholar at the East West Center, University of Hawaii, taking his Masters in Education. In the school campus he saw this lone tree awashed w/ beautiful yellow blooms. Everyday he looked up the tree to look for seeds, he being an ardent green thumb. He saw just a lone pod, which he watched everyday for it to fall on the ground. One day, the pod was no longer on the branch, so he hurried to the tree worrying somebody might have gotten to it first. Luckily the mature pod was there on the ground, which he squirreled on his luggage on his trip back home. To cut the story short, he planted the seeds as soon as he came home in Malaybalay. Only 2 seedlings survived, which he planted at the corner of our residential lot. It took years of waiting for the trees to produce flowers, almost 10 years. Nobody believed him at first, when he said the flowers are amazingly beautiful. When the trees finally bloomed, a lot of people would pass by our house looking up the tree.

Neighborhood kids would play under the tree & try to catch the shower of yellow flowers. It took again several years for the trees to produce pods. The first offsprings of the original trees are the ones planted in BNHS (the seedlings given by my papa to his bff the late Mr. Liberato Tortola, School Principal at that time), & also the ones planted at the BSU campus (seedlings given to another of papa’s bff Dr. Jaime Gellor). One also at the corner of the Reciña compound, felled because of commercial expansion.

Another shot of the golden trumpet trees along Sayre Highway. Flores is an avid biker.

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