Tipu Tree

Shade Trees

Hot-Dry Southwest

94 cities

The Tipu tree (Tipuana tipu) is a South American native that's become one of the most planted shade trees in Southern California and Arizona. You'll recognize it by its wide, arching canopy, feathery compound leaves, and clusters of golden-yellow flowers that drop in late spring. It's semi-evergreen, meaning it holds most of its leaves through mild winters but drops them briefly in colder snaps or during drought stress.

Lifespan

60 to 100 years in favorable conditions, though urban specimens planted near hardscape or in compacted soil often decline significantly earlier.

Mature Size

25 to 40 feet tall with a spread of 40 to 60 feet. The canopy is wider than it is tall, which is what makes it useful for shade but problematic near structures.

Care & Maintenance

Once established, Tipu trees are reasonably drought tolerant, but 'established' means 3 to 5 years of deep, regular watering. Deep and infrequent beats shallow and frequent every time, since it encourages roots to go down instead of out toward your hardscape. They prefer full sun and do not perform well in heavy clay, where root rot becomes a real risk.

Common Issues & Threats

Aphid honeydew, not sap: That sticky coating on your car is almost certainly honeydew excreted by aphids feeding in the canopy, not the tree dripping sap. Sooty mold then grows on the honeydew and turns everything black. The tree itself isn't the direct cause, but its dense canopy creates ideal aphid habitat.
Aggressive surface roots: Tipu roots are notorious for lifting sidewalks, cracking driveways, and invading irrigation lines. If your tree is within 10 feet of hardscape, you should already be watching for heaving. This is not fixable with root pruning long-term, it's a design problem.
Weak branch structure: Fast-growing trees tend to form co-dominant stems, where two or more branches compete to be the main trunk. In Tipu, this creates branch unions with included bark that can fail in wind without warning. An arborist will spot these immediately; a homeowner usually won't until a branch is on the roof.

Pruning Guide

Prune after the spring flower drop, not in summer when the heat stress is highest. The most important work on a young Tipu is structural: identifying and reducing those co-dominant stems before they get large enough to become a removal job when they fail. Avoid lion-tailing, which is when trimmers remove all the interior foliage and leave tufts at the ends of branches. It looks clean but makes the tree significantly more likely to break in wind.

Did You Know?

Most people get this wrong: they think a Tipu is a permanent shade solution. It is not a slow tree. Under good conditions it can add 3 to 5 feet per year, which means it can outgrow its space faster than you expect and start causing root conflicts you weren't planning for. The wood is also commercially harvested in South America and is harder and denser than it looks, which is why mature specimens are expensive to remove.

Where Tipu Tree Is Found

Tipu Tree is common in 94 of the US communities we cover, across 1 climate regions.

Hardiness Zones 5-9

Queen Creek, AZ Zone 9b Catalina Foothills, AZ Zone 9b Oro Valley, AZ Zone 8b Prescott, AZ Zone 7b Summerlin South, NV Zone 9a Fountain Hills, AZ Zone 9b Anthem, AZ Zone 9b New River, AZ Zone 9b Spanish Springs, NV Zone 7a Boulder City, NV Zone 9b Tanque Verde, AZ Zone 9a Los Alamos, NM Zone 7a

... and 82 more cities

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