AFRICAN TULIP TREE
Spathodea campanulata Beauvois
Large, fiery red flowers, like cups of molten metal, crown the high branches of the African tulip tree. This tree differs from many of the flowering trees in Hawaii by producing its flowers all the year round. There is a season in midwinter when they seem to be brightest and most numerous, but this may be due merely to lack of competition.
Individual flowers suggest a lopsided cup, with five irregular, frilled lobes. The edges of the corolla are a vivid yellow, and the inside of the cup is yellowish also, with red streaks. The flowers grow in circular masses of closely crowded buds, a few developing at a time, so that the tree seems to be ever-blooming. The flowers grow out of a spathe-like calyx from which is derived the generic name of Spathodea. They are followed by boat-shaped pods, some two feet long, which split open and spill out masses of shining, flaky, winged seeds.
The leaves are large and compound in structure, made up of three or four pairs, and an end leaflet. The leaves are dark green in color, leathery and with conspicuous veining.
The tree is a member of the Bignonia family and a native of tropical Africa. Specimens grow in Kamanele Park, Manoa. ([Plate II])
GOLDEN SHOWER TREE
Cassia fistula Linnaeus
Immense pendant clusters of large, yellow blossoms, hanging in grapelike bunches among the leaves explain the popular name of the Golden Shower tree. Although the foliage does not fall, the yellow blooms sometimes cover the tree so completely they overwhelm the leaves and make it look as if this tree were the only thing in the landscape which is standing in sunshine, all else being shadowed.
Leaves are very large and compound in structure, each leaflet being two to six inches long.
The bright, golden, yellow flowers have five petals, clearly veined. Like all the shower trees, which belong to the Pea family, the yellow flowers are built on the general plan of a pea blossom, but the five petals are very nearly of the same size and shape. From the center of the flower project the long curving pistil and some stamens. This pistil develops into a straight, cylindrical, black pod, sometimes three feet in length. It has given the name of Pudding-pipe to the tree in India. This long “pipe” is the Cassia pod of commerce, a cathartic being made out of its sticky brown pulp. The tree is a native of tropical Asia.
Golden Shower trees line both sides of Pensacola street between Lunalilo and Wilder avenues. They are at their best in June and July. ([Plate III])