Dwarf poinciana

Caesalpinia pulcherrima, commonly known as pride of Barbados, peacock flower, dwarf poinciana or red bird of paradise, is a brilliantly flowered, fast-growing evergreen shrub or small tree of the family Fabaceae (subfamily Caesalpinioideae), native to the West Indies and tropical America and widely cultivated and naturalized throughout the tropics and subtropics. The plant typically reaches 2–5 m in height, with slender, green to grey-brown branches that are armed with scattered, short, recurved prickles. The leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound, 20–40 cm long, with 4–9 pairs of pinnae, each pinna bearing 6–12 pairs of oblong, light-green leaflets 1–2 cm long. The exceptionally showy flowers are 2.5–4 cm across and arranged in elongate, erect terminal racemes 15–30 cm long; each flower has five clawed, crinkled-edged petals (the uppermost largest), usually flaming orange and yellow but red, pure yellow or pink in cultivated forms, and ten long-exserted scarlet stamens that double the flower's apparent diameter. The fruit is a flat, oblong legume 7–12 cm long, ripening dark brown and dehiscent.