Deciduous tree, up to 35 m high, but much smaller when grown in gardens and in cooler areas where it reaches a height of only about 10 m. It can take 5 – 8 years to flower if grown from a seed.
Smooth, oval-shaped and can have three or five lobes (and sometimes more). Each leaf is 10 – 30 cm long. The tree loses some or all of its leaves at the end of winter, before flowering, and the leaves turn yellow just before falling.
Bright coral-red and bell-shaped, they occur in clusters at the end of branches. They are 1 – 2 cm long and have a waxy surface. They appear after the tree has lost all or some of its leaves.
A dark-brown seed pod which is tough, leathery and about 10 cm long. It contains rows of corn-like seeds that are surrounded by hairs.
CAUTION: the hairs within the seed pod can irritate the skin and are easily inhaled, so it is not advisable to handle any open seed pods.
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First fully open single flower
Full flowering (record all days)
End of flowering (when 95% of the flowers have faded)
Open seed pods (record all days)
First fully open leaf
Leaves open (record all days)
First leaf to change colour
Leaves changing colour (record all days)
First leaf to drop this year
50% or more of leaves dropped (record all days)
No leaves (record all days)
Poinciana (Delonix regia) has feathery and fern-like leaves, doesn’t have the bell-shaped flowers, and has larger seed pods (20 – 70 cm long).
