Handroanthus is widely used as an
ornamental tree in the tropics in
landscaping gardens, public squares, and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful flowering. Many flowers appear on still-leafless stems at the end of the
dry season, making the
floral display more conspicuous.
Handroanthus impetiginosus,
Handroanthus chrysotrichus, and
Handroanthus ochraceus are well-known throughout the
tropics.
Handroanthus heptaphyllus,
Handroanthus serratifolius,
Handroanthus guayacan,
Handroanthus chrysanthus, and
Handroanthus billbergii are important timber trees of the
Neotropics. Much of the
lumber from
Handroanthus is
exported. The wood is durable outdoors, where it is usually used for
furniture and
decking. It is increasingly popular as a decking material due to its
insect resistance and durability.
Handroanthus and the unrelated
Guaiacum (
Zygophyllaceae) produce the hardest, heaviest, and most durable wood of the American tropics. Much of the ipê imported into the United States is used for decking. Starting in the late 1960s,
importing companies targeted large
boardwalk projects to sell ipê, beginning with the
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which maintains the city's
boardwalks, including along the
beach of
Coney Island. The city began using ipê around that time and has since converted the entire boardwalk—over long—to ipê. The ipê lasted about 25 years, at which time (1994) the department began replacing it with new ipê.
La Sultana, a yacht refashioned from a Soviet spy vessel, was fitted with an ipê deck during its restoration. In 2008-2009,
Wildwood, New Jersey, rebuilt a section of its boardwalk using ipê. The town had pledged to use domestic
black locust, but it was not available in time. Given that ipê trees typically grow in
densities of only one or two trees per , large areas of
forest must be searched and cut down to create paths to
harvest the trees to fill orders for boardwalks and to a lesser extent, homeowner
decks. The bark of several species of
Handroanthus is sold in South American markets. Similar-looking bark is often fraudulently passed off as
Handroanthus. It is used in various ways to relieve certain
symptoms of certain
cancers.
Handroanthus ochraceus (
synonym:
Tabebuia heteropoda),
Handroanthus incanus, and other species are occasionally used as an
additive to the
entheogenic drink
Ayahuasca. == Ecology ==