During the Holy Week observance, many people visit the holy tree or trumpetwood (Buchenavia tetraphylla) in La Trinidad del Rio de Jesus, nearly 25 miles south of Rio de Jesus. Scores of worshipers are lured by the belief that a centennial trumpetwood growing in this village is endowed with healing and miraculous powers.

Some come here in search of its lovely purple flowers they use for healing a number of ailments, soothing stomachaches, arthritis, rheumatism, back pains, asthma and many other diseases. They turn the trumpetwood’s flowers into tea or ointments.

Worshipers light up their candles, say their prayers and ask for health to a tree whose flowers bloom at midnight of the Holy Friday. This popular legend brings in lots of people since the wee hours of the morning, willing to get a load of the blooming process. Its flowers, though, get a full bloom in the morning and fade away altogether as the night closes in. In addition to Panama, the trumpetwood grows in some regions of the Caribbean, like Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Cuba, as well as in an area spanning from Central America all the way down to Brazil.