AFRICAN TULIPS (The Un Pont Caraga Tree)

African tulip flowers give a very brilliant color because of which when the African Tulip tree is in full bloom, it is a showstopper.

 

Spathodea is a monotypic genus of flowering plants - with a single species, Spathodea campanulata, commonly known as the African tulip tree or Fountain tree or Flame-of-the-forest. African tulips are open and branched, evergreen trees of African forests.

Kingdom :  Plantae 

Division :  Magnoliophyta

Class :  Magnoliopsida

Order : Lamiales

Family : Bignoniaceae

Genus : Spathodea

Species : Campanulata

African Tulips produce terminal clusters of beautiful blooms held above the foliage appearing in upturned whorls at the branch tips. A few at a time, the buds of the lowest tier bend outward and open into large bell-shaped orange-red flowers with a yellow border on the petals and four brown-anthered stamens in the center. They are followed by 5-10 in green brown fingerlike pods pointing upwards and outwards above the foliage.

Facts About African tulips

• The generic name comes from the Greek word, in reference to the spathe-like calyx.
• African tulip is native to tropical Africa.
• It grows to about 7-25 m tall.
• It is a decorative tree, because of their beautiful red tulip-like flowers.
• African Tulip is also known as the fountain tree because of the water sealed in the flower buds, and if you were to slice it open, it would squirt out like a fountain.
• African Tulip flowers are especially adapted for hummingbird pollination.