Butterfly bush (Caesalpinia poinciana regia) Rocalba 1 g

Butterfly tree (Caesalpinia poinciana regia)

Contents of the package 2 seeds

Tree up to 15 m tall, but mostly smaller. Grows a broad umbrella-shaped crown. The leaves are double-stalked. Leaves 30 to 50 cm long, finely dissected like ferns, with leaf blades about 1 cm long, numbering several hundred. The leaves are spreading; they may fall in the dry season, but only for a short time. Inflorescence orange- or scarlet-red, 10 to 15 cm long; with 5 sepals, green outside, red inside and 5 partly white or yellow, with crimson spots. The flower has 10 long red stamens and a pistil in the centre. Most flowers appear at the end of the dry season with the new leaves, indeed almost engulfing the tree in flame. The fruit is a blackish-brown, flattened, 30-60 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, drooping, mostly slightly curved and transversely ribbed, woody pod that remains on the tree until the next flowering.