Please help identify some unusual trees in La Ceiba, Honduras (Central America). What makes them so intriguing are the flower-bearing stalks that grow directly out of the trunk. At first, I thought the flowers were some kind of orchid using the trees as hosts, but the locals said the flowers really are part of the tree. Attached are a couple pictures of the flower stalks. One of the locals said the tree is called "sapoto" (or, perhaps, "zapoto"), which could mean it is in the family sapotaceae, but I haven't been able to find any good enough photos on the web that show enough of the trunk to see if the flowers are as in the photos I've attached. Since I had originally take the attached photos just to admire the beauty of these unusual flowers, I realise now that I will need to take a few more photos for identification purposes (i.e. leaves, fruit, etc.), and will do this Tuesday. For now, the above should help to get the ball rolling. Thanks!
Wow! That was quick! From the photos I can find on the web, that sure looks like the one, including the fruit I remember seeing but had not photographed. I'll take a closer look to be sure, but it would certainly appear to be some variety of what you say. I say "variety," since the majority of the photos I found on the web had red or pink flowers, but these have yellow flowers. Some of the Internet results did have yellow flowers, though. Thank you very, very much! P.S. Just found out I'll need to be in another part of town tomorrow, so I'll have to check this out and get additional photos later in the week.
