''Spathodea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

in the plant family

Bignoniaceae Bignoniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales commonly known as the bignonias or trumpetvines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: ...

. 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 forests 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 that ...

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

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

s. The generic name comes from the

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

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

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

-like

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

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

Description

The flower bud is ampule-shaped and contains water. Children 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 Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

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 bi ...

gardens and parks, their nectar is popular with many

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics ar ...

s, such as the

black-throated mango The black-throated mango (''Anthracothorax nigricollis'') is a hummingbird species native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago. Description It is 10.2 cm long and weighs 7.2g. The longish black bill is slightly decurved. The tail in ...

(''Anthracothorax nigricollis''), the black jacobin (''Florisuga fusca''), or the

gilded hummingbird The gilded sapphire (''Hylocharis chrysura''), also known as the gilded hummingbird, is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, ...

(''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 ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji, India, Jamaica,

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, Papua New Guinea,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, Sri Lanka,

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

, Philippines It has become an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

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, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 550 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family ...

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

Pests and diseases

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country 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 south by Tanzania. The south ...

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

Common names

*Afrikaans: , *Kannada: () *English: African tulip tree, fountain tree, Nandi flame, Nile flame, squirt tree, tulip tree, Uganda flame, Flame Tree of Thika *French: *Bangla: () *Hindi: () *Malayalam: ''African Poomaram'' () *Luganda: *Luhya: *Malay: *Sinhala: , *Spanish: , , , , in Puerto Rico . *Telugu: (), () *Swahili: , *Tamil: ()* *Trade name: Nandi flame

Gallery

File:African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata) flower in Narshapur, AP W IMG 0721.jpg, File:African Tulip Tree (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 East Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Trees of Africa Trees of Angola Trees of Ethiopia Flora of Ghana Flora of Sudan Flora of Zambia Afrotropical realm flora Garden plants of Africa Ornamental trees Invasive plant species in Sri Lanka Monotypic Lamiales genera Trees of Guatemala