Guanacaste Tree: Facts About Costa Rica’s National Tree

Drive through the pastures of northwest Costa Rica and you’ll see cattle gathered under wide, flat-topped trees. Those are Guanacaste trees, Costa Rica’s national tree and the namesake of an entire province.

The Guanacaste tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) is a large tropical legume native from Mexico to northern South America. It was declared a national symbol of Costa Rica in 1959. It’s easy to recognize by its broad, umbrella-shaped crown, fine feathery leaves and curled, ear-shaped seed pods, which give it its English names, elephant-ear tree and monkey-ear tree. Costa Ricans value it for shade, cattle feed and durable, water-resistant wood. You’ll see the most in Guanacaste province, especially in open pastures during the dry season.

This guide covers how to recognize the tree, where its name comes from, why it’s a national symbol, how people use it and where to see one.

Identify it

What Does the Guanacaste Tree Look Like?

• Crown: trees growing in open pasture form a huge, rounded crown that’s often wider than the tree is tall. In forest, they grow taller and narrower.
• Trunk: thick and straight, with fairly smooth bark and no buttress roots.
• Leaves: finely divided and feathery, letting dappled light through. Trees lose many leaves during the dry season.
• Flowers: small white puffball flowers, usually from late February to early April.
• Pods: flat, dark brown and curled into a ring that looks like an ear. They take about 9 to 10 months to develop and drop from about March to April.

The pods are the easiest giveaway. Look on the ground under the tree in the dry season, and you’ll often find them scattered around.

The name

Where Does the Name “Guanacaste” Come From?

The name comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. It combines quahuitl (tree) and nacaztli (ear), giving quauhnacaztli, or “ear tree,” after the shape of the pods. Over time it became guanacaste in Spanish. In Costa Rica, the curled pods are sometimes called chorejas.

The tree gave its name to Guanacaste province in northwestern Costa Rica, and it appears on the provincial coat of arms. For more on the region, see our guide to Guanacaste’s history and culture.

Symbol

Why Is the Guanacaste Costa Rica’s National Tree?

Costa Rica declared the Guanacaste tree a national symbol by executive decree in 1959, making it one of the country’s oldest national symbols. It was chosen as a symbol of respect for trees and care for natural resources, at a time when campaigns to protect forests were growing. Its wide shade, a lifeline for people and cattle in the hot, dry northwest, is part of its appeal.

The tree also connects to the 1824 annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the region that became Guanacaste province, which Costa Ricans celebrate every July 25. Its curled pods appeared in the logo for the annexation’s bicentennial.

The Guanacaste sits alongside Costa Rica’s other national symbols, including the national flower, the national bird and the ox cart.

Uses

How Is the Guanacaste Tree Used?

• Shade: ranchers leave Guanacaste trees standing in pastures to shade cattle, and coffee growers have used them as shade trees.
• Livestock feed: cattle, horses, pigs, goats and sheep eat the leaves, pods and seeds, which matters most in the dry season when grass is scarce.
• Wood: reddish-brown, lightweight and resistant to water and rot. It’s used for furniture, cabinets, doors, window frames and boats. Sawdust can irritate the eyes and lungs, so woodworkers wear protection.
• Soap: the pods were once used to make a soapy liquid for washing clothes.
• Food: in parts of Mexico and Central America, green seeds are boiled and eaten, and seeds are sometimes roasted.
• Soil: like many legumes, the Guanacaste fixes nitrogen, which helps improve the soil around it.

Ecology

A Tree Built for Animals That No Longer Exist

One of the most interesting things about the Guanacaste tree is its seed dispersal. Few native animals today eat the hard pods, and biologists, including Daniel Janzen, who worked for decades in Guanacaste’s dry forest, proposed that the pods evolved to be eaten and spread by large Ice Age mammals such as giant ground sloths. After those animals went extinct, cattle and horses took over the job. That’s partly why you see so many Guanacaste trees in pastures.

The species is common and listed as least concern for conservation. It grows quickly and germinates readily, which makes it useful for reforestation but invasive in some places outside its native range.

See one

Where to See Guanacaste Trees in Costa Rica

• Guanacaste province: look for large, lone trees in cattle pastures along the main roads between Liberia, Santa Cruz and Nicoya, and on the way to beaches such as Tamarindo and Playa Conchal.
• Dry forest parks: Santa Rosa National Park and Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve protect the tropical dry forest where the tree grows naturally.
• The Central Pacific: the tree also grows along the Pacific slope, including in Manuel Antonio National Park.

Interested in other native trees? Read about the guapinol tree, another dry-forest species.

Good to know

Guanacaste Tree FAQ