The Judas Tree of the San Rafael Cemetery

A tree that flowers straight out of its own bark, standing at the gate of a cemetery. Judas trees do not put their blossom on new shoots the way most trees do; the magenta flowers push directly through the old wood of the trunk and the heavy limbs, before any leaves appear, so for two or three weeks in early spring the whole frame of the tree is coloured rather than covered. Botanists recording Cordoba's remarkable trees name this one the largest specimen of its species in the province: two and three quarter metres around, though only ten metres tall, splitting into three arms below head height. It shares the entrance with a Mexican fan palm, two big red river gums and an uncommon jujube, in a cemetery that thousands of people walk through in the last days of October. Which is the wrong time to see it. Come in March instead, when the gate is quiet and the tree is doing the one thing it is famous for.