Flowering trees - flaming in the forest

As we enter into the monsoon season, not many of the beautiful trees we have around are wasting their energy making blooms. Many of them are looking kinda heavy laden with foliage.

I saw a straggly jacaranda (j. obtusifolia) trying to flower....and a lone Flame of the Forest putting out some flowers (poinciana regia). Oh yes ... a couple of the Rain Trees (Samanea saman) have got some of their shaving brush looking flowers out. But the most outstanding showing has been that of the African Tulips (Spathodea campanulata). These beautiful trees are best viewed along the expressways, especially those sections of the BKE and KJE that overlook the reserves.

If you haven't really noticed these, I highly recommend you go take a look. There are wonderful copses of these trees. You can't miss them. They are characterized by these beautifully striking reddish orange blooms against rather dark foliage. They are the only ones in bloom now. They are sometimes called the flame of the forest, but we don't recognize them as such here, as that nickname has been pretty much reserved for the poinciana.

Better go quickly if you don't want to miss this showing. I don't know how long the blooms will last.