The World´s Tree Species: flame tree

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Royal Poinciana - Delonix regia

The Royal Poinciana tree (Species name: Delonix regia) is native to Madagascar and is an attractive ornamental tree that is widely cultivated around the world in temperate climates. The most striking characteristic of this tree is its brightly colored flowers that range from red to orange or even yellow. Because of these bright flowers this tree is sometimes called a "flame tree" (there are several different tree species that have this distinction).

The image above shows some of the flower color variation on the same tree.

The leaves of the Royal Poinciana are very similar to those of the Blue Jacaranda (although they are not in the same family) and if the trees and young and not in bloom they can be hard to tell apart. Check this link for a discussion of how to distinguish them.

Like the Jacaranda the Royal Poinciana makes for a good shade tree partly because of the fact that it tends to grow not very tall and with a broad crown like the one in the picture above.

African Tulip Tree - Spathodea campanulata

The African Tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) is a large evergreen tree native to central Africa. It is also known by the names Fountain Tree and Flame of the Forest. It is one of a handful of trees that are referred to as "flame" trees.

This tree species is widely planted (where the climate permits) as an ornamental tree for ornate bell shaped flowers that are a combination of red, orange and yellow. Seeing as most of the flowers were pretty high up in the tree I tried to get as good a picture as possible of one that I found laying on the ground.

This particular tree is the only one that I have seen of this species and is located in a park in central Malaga that the locals refer to as the "paseo del parque". While this park is not known as a botanical garden it has just as many species and very good specimens of a great variety of plants, palms and trees.

The African Tulip tree is the only species in its genus and is a distant relative of some other well known ornamental trees such as the Jacarandas and the Catalpas (in the Bignoniaceae family).

This tree is known to have become invasive in some areas such as Maui.

Flame Tree - Brachychiton Acerifolius

The Flame tree (Brachychiton acerilolius) is not the only tree species to be called by the name "Flame" but in my opinion is the one that bests fits the name. It normally drops all of its leaves just prior to the blossoms forming in bright red clusters that turn the whole tree into one big mass of red. I found this tree in Malaga, Spain even though it is native to Australia. The Brachychiton acerifolius leaves are large and can vary from one to nine lobes (even on the same tree).

The flowers are like little bells, about 1cm across. They are bright red and do not vary in color. They are about the same size as the Brachychiton populneus "bells" but are a good deal smaller than the flowers of the Brachychiton discolor or Brachychiton bidwillii. The Flame tree also has a naturally occurring hybrid that is a cross with the B.discolor that is called "Clarabelle".

The images below are a serious of pictures that I have taken near my home that illustrate how the seedpods develop from flower to full maturity. Notice how in the first picture the seedpods are already forming inside of one of the small "bells".

In the next picture you can see what is left of the flower at the base of the growing seed pods.

These pods can grow in clusters of 2-5 and it is very common to see them in a star pattern like the one below.

Notice how at this state the flowers have all fallen off the tree but the leaves have yet to form. On some of the trees I have noticed that not all of the leaves fall off.