The beautiful Royal Poinciana trees are in full bloom on 5th Avenue South in sunny Naples Florida. We had to take a picture of these wonderful trees because the flowers are so amazing. Usually the winter weather is much warmer on 5th Avenue so close to the Gulf of Mexico but this year the trees were damaged by the cold weather that reached so close to the Gulf. We were surprised that they have put on such a show this year as they looked dead up to a couple of months ago when their green leaves started sprouting again.
The Royal Poinciana Tree was introduced to North America by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy on St Kitts in 1642 and has been named in his honor. The Poinciana is the national flower of St Kitts and Nevis. It is native to Madagascar where it is found in the dry deciduous forests. As we do not have an extensive dry season in Naples, the tree usually keeps it leaves all year. This year because of the frost the trees lost all their leaves during the coldest part of the winter.
Another very interesting fact about this beautiful flowering tree is that the seed pods are used in the Caribbean as the percussion instrument we know as the maracas! A very useful and beautiful tree, we are very lucky to have the Royal Poinciana tree in our wonderful paradise!
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