Flamboyant Trees Beauty

Delonix regia (redirected from flamboyant tree)Also found in: Dictionary...

Delonix regia

(redirected from flamboyant tree)

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.

"Gulmohar" redirects here. For other uses, see Gulmohar (disambiguation).

Delonix regia is a species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, subfamilyCaesalpinioideae. It is noted for its fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of flowers. Inmany tropical parts of the world it is grown as an ornamental tree and in English it isgiven the name royal poinciana or flamboyant. It is also one of several trees known as"flame tree".

This species was previously placed in the genus Poinciana, named for Phillippe deLongvilliers de Poincy, the 17th century governor of Saint Christophe (Saint Kitts). It is anon nodulating legume.

Description

The flowers of Delonix regia are large,with four spreading scarlet or orange-redpetals up to 8 cm long, and a fifth uprightpetal called the standard, which is slightlylarger and spotted with yellow and white.They appear in corymbs along and at theends of branches. The naturally occurringvariety flavida (Bengali: Radhachura) hasyellow flowers.[2] The pods are green andflaccid when young and turn dark-brownand woody. They can be up to 60 cm longand 5 cm wide. The seeds are small,weighing around 0.4 g on average. Thecompound leaves have a featheryappearance and are a characteristic light,bright green and are doubly pinnate.Each leaf is 30–50 cm long with 20 to 40pairs of primary leaflets or pinnae, eachdivided into 10–20 pairs of secondaryleaflets or pinnules.

Distribution and habitat

Gordonvale, Queensland. Seed pods visibleon upper br