Author: Rafinesque
Morphological description
Trees unarmed.
Leaves bipinnate. Leaflets numerous, opposite.
Inflorescences axillary, racemose, aggregated near the ends of the branchlets; bracts small, inconspicuous, deciduous or persistent (Delonix regia compl 139567 ).
Flowers large, showy, bisexual. Sepals 5, valvate. Petals 5, obovate, transversely elliptic or reniform, conspicuously clawed. Stamens 10, fertile, exserted; filaments pubescent or tomentose below; anthers dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscing. Ovary shortly stipitate, pubescent to glabrous, many-ovuled; style about equalling the length of stamens.
Pods linear-oblong, flattened, dehiscing into 2 woody or leathery valves, many-seeded.
Seeds transverse, hard, oblong-subcylindrical to oblongelliptic.
Distribution
Species 10, from E Africa through Arabia to India, most of the species occurring in Madagascar. One species, Delonix regia with magnificent scarlet flowers, is widely cultivated tbroughout the Tropics.