The Embaúba (Cecropia pachystachya) is a 4 to 8 meters tall tree, native to the American tropics. It is a pioneer tree, providing healthy and rich organic matter for other trees to thrive and grow around it. It shoots up fast and naturally, feeding innumerous birds and being known to be the favorite tree for the sloths – spotted on two of our five trails up to now. Birds are greatly responsible for spreading its seeds. It fructifies from November until February and its flowers, known as snake fingers, bloom for a long period, from August until November. Its flowers and sweet fruits attract Sayaca tanagers, Palm tanagers, Channel-billed toucans, Magpie tanagers and both Spot-billed and Saffron Toucanets as well as the Bell Bird, which can be heard and seen regularly in the Lodge’s forests every year, as well as the Common Potoo, who might use the Embaúba’s stump to breed on.