The Mexican buckeye is a small ornamental tree with beautiful spring pink flowers. Photo by Don Glentzer.

Mexican Buckeye

Ungnadia speciosa

An ideal flowering tree, the Mexican buckeye provides spring blooms and fall color, of interest all year long. Fall seed pods rattle in the wind, adding a whimsical note. It requires little maintenance compared to better known, more demanding flowering trees. The tree can serve as a large background shrub or ornamental small tree whose spring flowers resemble delicate redbud or peach blossoms.

The tree grows rapidly in full sun or partial shade. It performs well in even relatively poor, gravelly soils and requires very little supplementary water.

It’s also commonly called monillo, Texas-buckeye, Spanish-buckeye, New Mexican-buckeye, false-buckeye, and canyon-buckeye.

Small fragrant pink flowers appear in the spring. The Mexican buckeye leaves are deciduous and often turn yellow in the fall. Photo by Don Glentzer.