Plant Family: Belongs to the Caesalpiniaceae family, which includes the Orchid Tree (Bauhinia variegata), Flamboyant (Delonix regia) and Golden Shower (Cassia fistula).

Description: Very showy flowering tree up to 15 m tall (50 ft), with wide-spreading branches forming umbrella-like crown up to 8 m across (25 ft); stems and twigs covered with rusty-red hairs; leaves bipinnate (twice compound), about 60 cm long (2 ft) with 8-20 pairs of 2 cm-long (¾ in) oblong leaflets; fragrant yellow flowers clustered on upright stalks (racemes) about 46 cm long (18 in); each flower about 4 cm across (1.5 in) with translucent yellow, crinkled petals; flowers have orange stamens, and petals have reddish brown mark in center; seed pods purplish brown, flat, oblong, 7-10 cm long (3-4 in), remain on tree until next flowering season.

Natural Habitat: Coastal areas of tropics and sub-tropics.

Origin & Distribution: Tree is native to coastal areas from Sri Lanka through the Malay Archipelago and Indonesia to northern Australia; and is now naturalized throughout tropics; propagation is by seed - in wild, seeds pass through and are processed in gut of bird or mammal before germinating, otherwise must be treated chemically or by scarifying before they will germinate.

Uses: Planted as street and shade trees in tropics and sub-tropics.

References:
US National Tropical Botanical Gardens (ntbg.org). Kalaheo, Hawaii: 2004
Robert A. DeFilipps. Useful Plants of the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1998
C.D. Adams. Flowering Plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Jamaica, Glasgow University Press 1972
Floridata Encyclopedia of Plants and Nature (floridata.com), Tallahassee, Florida: 2000.