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Species Details

Details of Royal poinciana, Flamboyant will be displayed below

Royal poinciana, F...   

Common Name: Royal poinciana, Flamboyant
Also Known As: Poinciana regia
Scientific Name: Delonix regia
Local Name: Reethi gas (ginimaa)
Dhivehi Name: ރީތިގަސް / ގިނިމާ
Plantae  (Kingdom)
Tracheophyta  (Plylum)
Magnoliopsida  (Class)
Fabales  (Order)
Leguminosae  (Family)
Delonix   (Genus)

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant's description

The flame tree, also known as royal poinciana or flamboyant, is a member of the bean family (Leguminosae) and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful tropical trees in the world. This aptly named tree produces striking flame-like scarlet and yellow flowers in spring before the leaves emerge. As the trees mature, they develop broad umbrella-shaped crowns, and are often planted for their shade-giving properties. The delicate, fern-like leaves are composed of small individual leaflets, which fold up at the onset of dusk. This tree produces brown, woody seed pods that reach lengths of up to 60 cm; they turn reddish-brown to almost black when ripe

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant's Reproduction

The beautiful flowers of the flame tree are pollinated by birds. The flowers are produced in spring and summer and the leaves are shed in the dry season.

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant's Conservation

Although widely cultivated around the world and widely loved for its dazzling display of flowers in spring and summer, unfortunately the native populations of the flame tree are classified as globally Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant habitat

D. regia is a deciduous tree up to 30 m tall. It is found within the dry forest especially on limestone (Du Puy et al. 1995, 2002). It has distinctive large, bright red flowers, and is thought to be pollinated by sunbirds (Du Puy et al. 2002).

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant threats

D. regia is thought to be rare in its native habitat (Du Puy et al. 2002), although this seems to be an exaggeration (M. Rivers pers. obs.). The natural vegetation of Madagascar is under threat from habitat loss and fragmentation, as a result of conversion of land for slash-and-burn agriculture, grazing, charcoal production and collection of firewood (Moat and Smith 2007). The Madagascar dry forests are severely fragmented and often in small blocks. Expanding rural populations and selective logging is also adding to the pressure (WWF 2001). The dry forest is one of the vegetation types that are declining significantly in Madagascar with an estimated rate of loss of 0.4-0.7% per year (Harper et al. 2007, MEFT et al. 2009). Climate change modelling predicted that approximately 10% of the present climatically suitable range will be lost by 2100 (Rivers et al. 2011).

Royal poinciana, Flamboyant's status

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