Pronounciation: De-LON-ix re-GEE-a

Hardiness zones
Sunset 13-24
USDA 9 (with protection)-11

Landscape Use: Floral accent tree or specimen for mesic or oasis landscape design types only, light to moderate shade, lawn tree, bonsai.

Form & Character: Upright, somewhat rounded and spreading, flamboyant, landscape loud, tropical, informal, passionate red.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, woody, broadleaf perennial tree, moderately vigorous, upright, but decurrent in habit, 30- to 50-feet tall at maturity with greater spread.

Foliage/Texture: Leaves are twice pinnately compound with a distinct feathery appearance, bright green when young maturing to a dark green. Individual leaves are 12- to 20-inches long with 20 to 40 pairs of primary leaflets or pinnae, each divided into 10 to 20 pairs of secondary leaflets or pinnules; medium fine texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers large, arranged in terminal corymbs, individual flowers having four spreading scarlet or orange-red petals (rarely yellow) up to 3-inches long, and a fifth upright petal called "the standard", which is slightly larger than the other four and is spotted with yellow and white; fruits are an unsightly pod, green and flaccid when young turning dark-brown and woody once mature.

Seasonal Color: Brilliant red (rarely yellow) floral display furing late May and June.

Temperature Frost and heat sensitive, subject to abiotic stress injury when situated in a open, sparsely-vegetated, desert-style landscape with predominate inorganic (gravel or decomposing granite) surface mulch.

Light: Full sun when situated in a mesic landscape with abundant surrounding landscape greenery.

Soil: Tolerant of most soil types, but does best in a light sandy or sandy loam, well-drained soil with moderate amounts of organic matter.

Watering: Regular supplemental water is needed for robust growth in Phoenix.

Pruning: Raise the crown base conservatively and slowly over time as royal poinciana is somewhat prone to trunk sunscald injury.

Propagation: Seed, mechanical stratification of fresh mature seed will facilitate germination. Asexual propagation using semi-hardened stem cuttings is an effective alternate propagation method. Cutting propagation is used to reproduce the yellow-flowering variety flavida of this tree.

Disease and Pests: None

Additional comments: Royal poinciana is widely grow as an ornamental tree in tropical and sub tropical regions worldwide. It is a spectacularly beautiful tree when in flower. The rest of the year it looks like a 'mimosa on steroids' with its fine-textured, twice pinnately-compound foliage. In Phoenix, royal poinciana can be damaged by extreme desert summer heat and sunlight, so care should be taken to situate it in a location that is protected from reflected western summer full sun. The naturally-occurring variety flavida has yellow flowers.