A visit to the flame of the forest

It was a relatively sunny Sunday evening in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. After several days of postponement due to the fear of enforcement agencies, I was able to finally summon the courage to leave my house and pay a family friend a visit. The destination was about a twenty-minute drive from my apartment. The sight that greeted me upon getting to the place was a pleasant one for a plant enthusiast like me.

^{Oh! It's all shade of red!}

Even though this will not be my first time seeing the flame of the forest, as the plant is commonly known, I have never been this close to it during its flowering season to savor its beauty.

For those that are not familiar with the common name, the plant's scientific name is Delonix regia. It belongs to the legume (Fabaceae) family, more specifically in the Caesalpinaceae sub-family.

A closer look at the bole

Before deciding to attend to the primary purpose of my visit, I took a few closer steps to the ornamental plant just to make some physical observations. The first thing I noticed is the structure of its bole, that is, the stem.

^{Short, buttressed and heavily branching!}

The bole appeared short and the trunk looked heavily anchored with numerous buttress roots. The root ensures that the tree is not easily uprooted by the characteristic wind that could be a feature of the tropical climate.

The bark of the bole looked brownish grey, kind of smooth with some obvious epidermic exfoliation. On the other side of the bole, a large opening filled with some kind of plaques can be seen. I kept wondering what could cause it or it serves some specific functions.

^{What in my world!}

A bit higher up the bole and I discovered that the tree is harboring a tenant. An epiphytic Ficus species occupied the trunk of the bole. The epiphyte does no damage to the host in whatsoever way. All it needs is just a bit of space to hand its neck. Such a benign tenant, unlike parasitic tenants.

^{Look! A plant growing on another plant!}

The leaves

The leaves of the flame of the forest looked kind of complicated unlike the leaves of most plants. The main leaf axis branched into several smaller axis with the latter having tiny leaf-like appendages, otherwise known as leaflets. This kind of leaf arrangement is known as a compound leaf.

^{Compound leaf arrangement of Delonix regia}

The inflorescence

The most beautiful part of the flame of the forest that makes such a well sought-after ornamental plant is the red-themed flower. The flowers occur in a group or cluster known as racemose, with the young (sometimes yet to open buds) flowers at the center and older flowers growing around them. They usually occur at the terminal or axillary portion of branches.

^{Racemose inflorescence of Delonix regia}

Individually, the flowers are considered to be complete with all the necessary flora parts present.

Each flower consists of five brightly colored petals that primarily serve for the attraction of insect pollinators. Out of the five petals, one appeared to be variegated with white color. This is usually the case with the flowers of all the species of plants in the Caesalpinaceae sub-family. That is, they usually have one petal that looks distinct from the rest.

^Petals!

The calyx of the flower also amounts to five. It is hence safe to conclude that the flowers of Delonix regia are pentamerous, that is, the floral parts occur in groups of five.

^{The calyx}

Unfortunately, I could not get an original image of the fruits of Delonix regia. However, a copyright-free image of it is dropped below.

^{By Meneerke bloem - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0(}

Apart from being ornamental, the plant also serves a wide variety of purposes to the locals. Several scientific journals have been published to elucidate the medicinal potentials of the plant.

Thank you all for reading.