Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a beautiful treelet, this evergreen shrub or small tree . In the tropics it gets 15-20′ tall and its ungainly, wide spreading branches can cover about the same width. . The stem, branches and petioles are armed with sharp spines and the leaves are fernlike and twice compound, with many small, oval leaflets. with incredibly showy blossoms of orange and red. The flowers are bowl shaped, 2-3″ across, with five crinkled, unequal red and orange petals, and ten prominent bright red stamens that extend way beyond the corolla. The flowers are borne in terminal clusters 8-10″ tall throughout most of the year in tropical climates and in late summer . There also are forms with yellow and forms with dark red flowers. The fruits, typical legumes, are flat, 3-4″ long, and when ripe they split open to expose the little brown beans.It is a shrub growing to 3 m tall. The leaves are bipinnate, 20–40 cm long, bearing 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 6-10 pairs of leaflets 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm broad. The flowers are borne in racemes up to 20 cm long, each flower with five yellow, orange or red petals. The fruit is a pod 6–12 cm long.