''Spathodea'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

in the plant family

Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae () is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpet vines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant ...

. The single species it contains, ''Spathodea campanulata'', is commonly known as the African tulip tree. The tree grows between tall and is native to

tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

s of Africa. It has been nominated as among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders. This tree is planted extensively as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

throughout the tropics and is much appreciated for its very showy reddish-orange or crimson (rarely yellow), campanulate

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s. The generic name comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words σπαθη (''spathe'') and οιδα (''oida''), referring to the

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

-like calyx. It was identified by Europeans in 1787 on the Gold Coast of Africa.

Description

The flower bud is ampule-shaped and contains water. People sometimes play with these buds because of their ability to squirt water. The sap sometimes stains yellow on fingers and clothes. The open flowers are cup-shaped and hold rain and dew, making them attractive to many species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

Flower anatomy

The African tulip tree flower produces large flamboyant reddish-orange flowers that have approximately five petals and are 8–15 cm long. The flowers are bisexual and zygomorphic. These are displayed in a terminal corymb-like raceme inflorescence. Its pedicel is approximately 6 cm long. This flower also has a yellow margin and throat. The pistil can be found at center of four stamens that is inserted on the corolla tube. This flower has a slender ovary that is superior and is two celled. The seeds of this tree are flat, thin, and broadly winged.

Species associations

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

gardens and parks, their

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

is popular with many

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s, such as the black-throated mango (''Anthracothorax nigricollis''), the black jacobin (''Florisuga fusca''), or the gilded hummingbird (''Hylocharis chrysura'').Baza Mendonça & dos Anjos (2005) The wood of the tree is soft and is used for nesting by many hole-building birds such as barbets.de QUEIROZ, A. C. M., VENTURIERI, G., VENTURIERI, G., & de OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, M. C. M. (2012). Effect of toxicity of nectar and pollen of african tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) on Melipona fasciculata and M. seminigra (Apidae, Meliponini). In Embrapa Amazônia Oriental-Resumo em anais de congresso (ALICE). In: ENCONTRO SOBRE ABELHAS, 10., 2012, Ribeirão Preto. Anais... Ribeirão Preto: FUNPEC, 2012 Unfortunately the flowers have a natural defence killing bees, and it is thought various other species who harvest its pollen.

Geographic distribution

*Native to: Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia *Exotic in: Australia, Bangladesh,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, India, Jamaica,

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, Papua New Guinea,

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, Sri Lanka,

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

, Philippines It has become an

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

in many tropical areas, such as Hawaii, Queensland (Australia), Fiji, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and the wet and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka. ''Spathodea campanulata'' is a declared class 3 pest species in Queensland, Australia, under the ''Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002''. It is known to be toxic to Australian native

stingless bee Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species), comprising the Tribe (biology), tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other aut ...

s, such as ''Lipotriches (Austronomia) flavoviridis''.

Pests and diseases

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, two lepidopteran species, two termite species, and one bark beetle attack ''S. campanulata''. In Puerto Rico nine insect species in the orders

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

, and

Thysanoptera Thrips (order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Entomologists have described approximately 7,700 species. They fly only weakly and their feathery wings are ...

have been reported as feeding on various parts of ''S. campanulata''. The species is quite susceptible to butt and heart rot; wood of the tree rots quickly when in contact with the ground.

Use

Its wood is too weak for construction use but ideal enough for boxes and toothpicks. Fijian children sometimes use its flower buds as water pistols.

Common names

*Afrikaans: , *Bangla: () *English: African tulip tree, fountain tree, Nandi flame, Nile flame, squirt tree, tulip tree, Uganda flame, Flame Tree of Thika *Fijian: , *French: ''tulipier de Gabon'' *Hindi: () *Javanese: ''crut-crutan'' *Kannada: () *Luganda: *Luhya: *Malay: *Malayalam: ''African Poomaram'' () *Sinhala: , *Spanish: , , , , in Puerto Rico , in Guatemala . *Sundanese: ''kaï acret'' or ''kiacret'' *Swahili: , *Telugu: (), () *Tamil: () Nandi: Septet (singular),Septonok (plural) *Trade name: Nandi flame

Gallery

File:Spathodea campanulata flower in Narshapur, AP W IMG 0721.jpg, File:Spathodea campanulata at Secunderabad W IMG 6626.jpg, File:Bark I IMG_2807.jpg, File:Spathodea campanulata A.jpg, File:Spathodea_campanulata.jpg, File:Spathodea campanulata, saad, Krantzkloof NR.jpg, File:Yellow Spathodea Santa Cruz de Tenerife.JPG, File:Flower of Spathodea campanulata at Muzhappilangad .jpg, File:火焰樹 Spathodea campanulata 20210319195317 01.jpg, File:火焰樹 Spathodea campanulata 20210319195317 02.jpg, File:火焰樹 Spathodea campanulata 20210319195317 04.jpg, File:火焰樹 Spathodea campanulata 20210319195317 05.jpg,

Footnotes

References

* (2005): Beija-flores (Aves, Trochilidae) e seus recursos florais em uma área urbana do Sul do Brasil ummingbirds (Aves, Trochilidae) and their flowers in an urban area of southern Brazil ortuguese with English abstract''Revista Brasileira de Zoologia'' 22(1): 51–59. PDF fulltext
* http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=75

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q16034822, from2=Q387442 Bignoniaceae Flora of the Afrotropical realm Garden plants of Africa Ornamental trees Invasive plant species in Sri Lanka Monotypic Lamiales genera