Spathodea campanulata
Family: BIGNONIACEAE
Malayalam Name(s): Thaneerkaimaram, Spathodia
English name(s): Scarlet-bell tree, Fountain tree, African tulip tree
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: November-May
Habitat: Planted as an avenue tree, also as shade tree in coffee plantations
Distribution: Native in Tropical Africa
Description: Trees, to 18 m high; bark smooth, light brownish-grey; branchlets tomentose. Leaves imparipinnate, opposite, decussate, estipulate; rachis 9-40 cm long, stout, pubescent, grooved above, swollen at base; leaflets 9-19, opposite; petiolule 3-5 mm long, stout, pubescent; lamina 5-12.5 x 3-7 cm, elliptic-oblong, obovate-oblong or obovate, base round, acute or oblique, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, puberulent beneath, coriaceous, a prominent gland at the base of the lamina on the upper side; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, 8 cm long, bright red, in terminal racemes; pedicels 3-4 cm long, glabrous; bracts ca. 2 cm long; bracteoles 2, 7-10 mm long, oblong-lanceolate; calyx 5-6 x 2-2.5 cm, spathaceous, golden velutinous, recurved;. corolla tube 7.5-9 x 5-6 cm, bright reddish-orange without, yellowish within, glandular; lobes 5, 3-4.5 x 3-4 cm, subequal erect, deltoid; stamens e, subequal, unequally inserted at the base of swollen portion of the tube; filaments 4-6 cm long, glabrous; anthers large, locules divergent; staminodium small; disc 4 x 8 mm, annular, shallowly lobed; ovary superior, ovate-oblong, pubescent, papillose; style slender ca. 6 cm long; stigma 2-lipped, lips flattened. Fruit a capsule, 15-23 x 3-5 cm, lanceolate-oblong, brownish-black, woody, 2-valved; seeds many, 1.7-2.4 cm across, winged.
