Botanical name: Delonix regia - [ (dee-LON-iks) or (DEE-loh-niks) from the Greek delos (conspicuous) and onux (claw), referring to the long-clawed petals; (REE-jee-uh) royal ] Synonyms: Caesalpinia regia, Poinciana regia Family: Caesalpiniaceae - [ (Seez-al-pin-ee-uh--see-ay) from the generic name Caesalpinia ]

Common names of Delonix regia: Amharic: dire dawa zaf • Arabic: goldmore • Bengali: Krishnachura • Burmese: seinban • Chamorro: atbut • Creole: poinciana royal • English: fancy-anna, flamboyant acacia, flamboyant flame tree, flamboyant tree, flame of the forest, flame tree, gold mohur, gul mohr, gul mohur, julu tree, peacock flower, royal poinciana • French: flamboyante • Hawaiian: ohai ‘ula, ohai' • Hindi: गुलमोहर Gulmohr • Marathi: गुलमोहोर Gulmohor • Niuean: pine • Palauan: nangiosákura, nangyo • Portuguese: acacia flamejante, acacia rubra, flamboiante, flor de pavao, poinciana • Spanish: acacia roja, arbol del fuego, atbot det fuegu, clavellino, flamboyán, flor de pavo, framboyán, guacamaya, josefina, morazán, poinciana • Swahili: mjohoro, mkakaya • Tamil: mayarum, mayirkonrai, panjadi, telugu • Thai: hang nok yung farang • Vietnamese: phuong • Yoruba: sekeseke • and, unidentified: ‘ohai (Tonga Islands), atbot (Guam), avarua (Rarotonga, Cook Islands), fayarbaw (CNMI–Carolinian), ngatipa (Cook Islands), pilampwoia weitahta (Pohnpei), puke (Tahiti), sakuranirow (Yap), sekoula (Fiji).

Origin: Madagascar

Delonix regia is a tree 10-15 (max. 18) m high, attaining a girth of up to 2 m; trunk large, buttressed and angled towards the base; bark smooth, greyish-brown, sometimes slightly cracked and with many dots (lenticels); inner bark light brown; crown umbrella shaped, spreading with the long, nearly horizontal branches forming a diameter that is wider than the tree’s height; twigs stout, greenish, finely hairy when young, becoming brown.

Roots shallow. Leaves biparipinnate, alternate, light green, feathery, 20-60 cm long; 10-25 pairs of pinnae, 5-12 cm long, each bearing 12-40 pairs of small oblong-obtuse leaflets that are about 0.5-2 cm long and 0.3 cm wide; petiole stout.

The numerous leaflets are stalkless, rounded at the base and apex, entire thin, very minutely hairy on both sides, green on the upper surface. At the base of the leaf stalk, there are 2 compressed stipules that have long, narrow, comblike teeth.

Corymbs 15-30 cm long, borne laterally near the end of the twig, each with loosely arranged, slightly fragrant flowers; flowers 5-13 cm across, with 5 equal petals, on slender stalks 5-7.6 cm long. Petals 5-6.5 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, orbicular, broadly spoon shaped, rounded but broader than long, slightly wavy-margined or crisp, tapering into claws about 2.5 cm long, widely extended and bending backwards before falling. Petals 4, orange-red, almost scarlet, 1 longer and narrower than the others, whitish inside with red spots and streaks; stalk very long, slender and hairy. Sepals 5, thick, green outside and reddish with yellow border within, reflexed when the flowers open, pointed, finely hairy, about 2.5 cm long. Stamens 5 with 10 red filaments; pistil has a hairy 1-celled ovary about 1.3 cm long and slender style about 3 cm long.

Fruit green and flaccid when young, turning to dark brown, hard, woody pods, 30-75 cm long, 3.8 cm thick, 5-7.6 cm broad, ending in a short beak when mature, with many horizontally partitioned seed chambers inside, indehiscent, finally splitting into 2 parts. The conspicuous pods hang down and remain attached most of the year even when the trees are leafless.

Seeds 30-45, hard, greyish, glossy, to 2 cm long, oblong and shaped very much like date seeds, transversely mottled with a bony testa. They are arranged at right angles to the length of the pod.

The generic name, Delonix, is derived from a Greek delos (visible), and onyx (claw), in allusion to the conspicuously clawed petals. The specific name, regia, is from the Latin word regis (royal, regal, magnificent). Most of its common names are derived from its large, flame-red flowers.

Courtesy: - Flowers of India - TopTropicals - Dave's Garden - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - World Agroforestry Centre