Poinciana

Read about Poinciana in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Poinciana (M. de Poinci, governor of the Antilles in the seventeenth century). Leguminosae. Small mostly broad-topped unarmed trees, with large and very showy flowers; one of the most conspicuous trees in southern Florida and the American tropics. Leaves bipinnate with numerous small fits, and with no stipels and inconspicuous stipules: fls. very showy, orange or scarlet, in large corymbose racemes, not papilionaceous, the 5 petals clawed and eroded or even nmbriate on the margin, the stamens 10 and free and exserted: fr. long and flat.—There are 2 or 3 species of Poinciana, all native to the oriental tropics. The genus has been confounded with Caesalpinia, but the calyx-segms. are valvate, whereas they are strongly imbricate (or overlapping) in Caesalpinia. The P. pulcherrima, known as "Barbados pride" and "bird-of paradise flower," is Caesalpinia pulcherrima; P. Gil- liesii is C. Gilliesii. P. elata, Linn., native to India, Arabia, and Trop. Afr., is planted in the Old World, but is not in the American trade. It reaches a height of 20- 30ft., with the petals scarcely exserted beyond the calyx. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Poinciana can refer to:

• Delonix regia or Royal Poinciana, a tree
• Caesalpinia pulcherrima, a shrub