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Evergreen, tropical tree, it may be deciduous in dry summer s or in mildly cold winters. They may grow to 30-40 ft tall with a broad spread almost double that, with a flat-topped, umbrella-like crown. Leaves are compound, doubly pinnate and large, 30-50 cm long with 20-40 pairs of primary leaflets, pinae, each is further divided into 10-20 secondary leaflets. The flowers are large, with four spreading scarlet or orange-red petals up to 8 cm long and a fifth petal spotted with yellow and white. They are in clusters at the ends of branches. The fruit is a flattened, bean-like pod that is at frist green and maturing to dark brown and some 60 cm long.
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Sun, drought-tolerant, but it is at its best with medium moisture on well-drained soils. Plants are stressed at temperatures below 50°F. One enthusiast pined, "possibly the most gorgeous tree in cultivation."
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Hardy to USDA Zone 10 (tropical) It is endemic to the Madagascar, where it is now engangered, but it has been introduced into tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden it can be grown outdoors in the U.S. in the far southern areas of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California plus Hawaii.