GULMOHAR
listen about me
Delonix regia
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Dicotyledonae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Delonix
Species: regia
Scientific Name: Delonix regia (Hook.) Raf.
Common names
English: Flame buoyant, fire tree, flame tree, Royal Poinciana.
Hindi: Gulmohar.
Marathi: Gulmohar.
Kannada: Gentige hoo, kempu Torai.
Description:
1. Habit and Habitat: Tall, deciduous trees with grey to pale-brown bark. Endemic to Madagascar’s dry deciduous forest but has been introduced in to tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide.
2. Distribution: Native to northern and western Madagascar but has
been introduce in to tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide.
3. Morphology:
Leaf: Pinnae 8-20 pairs, leaflets 12-30 pairs, oblong, glabrous or
nearly so. Inflorescence: Racemes.
Flower: Flowers in terminal, simple or branched racemes. Large
showy, bisexual.
Calyx: Four spreading petals and a larger fifth petal which has steaks of yellow and white.
Corolla: Five smaller sepals that are green on the outside and red
on inside.
Androecium: 10 stamens with bright red stalk and yellowish brown anther.
Gynoecium: Ovary superior green, slightly velutinous, style
glabrous stigma indistinct.
Fruit: Pods broadly linear, woody, dark-brown or reddish-brown,
flat, beaked.
Seeds: Seeds oblong, glabrous, smooth, white or creamy-white,
mottled brown.
Flowering and Fruiting time: March-August.
4. Propagation: Through seeds.
5. Importance:
a. The tree is mainly preferred for cultivation mainly on account of
profusion of bright flowers.
b. The bark is used as a febrifuge.
c. The tree yields a gum, which is used medicinally.