Every fence line in Guanacaste is partly alive. Farmers cut branches of this tree, drive them into the ground as posts, string the wire, and within a season the posts have leaves. The red peeling bark tells you which ones.
Where you’ll see it
Fence lines above all, plus dry forest and gardens. The shiny copper bark peeling in curls is unmistakable.
What to know
The tree is fast, tough, and roots from cuttings with almost no effort, which made it the fence post of choice long before wire was cheap. The resin has a long history in folk medicine for skin and the bark is used as a tea. The nicknames refer to the way the bark peels like a sunburned shoulder. Once you know it, you see it everywhere, and you realise how many of the province’s fences are forests waiting to happen.
