The top petal of the pride-of-Barbados is small and bright yellow, the rest of the petals are yellow marked with reddish-orange. As the flowers age and wilt, they turn red. Rarely, a shrub was found with all yellow, all dark orange, or all rose-pink flowers; these are now horticultural varieties sold in nurseries. The flowers are followed by large, flat pods containing the seeds.

As the name suggests, the pride-of-Barbados is native to the islands of the Caribbean. The genus, though, has about 70 species scattered about the tropics and subtropics worldwide. The plant was utilitarian—the fast-growing shrubs made for a tall, quick, and beautiful hedge. Barbados flower-fences separated properties especially where privacy was desired.

Cooked, the unripe seeds can be eaten, but the mature seeds are loaded with tannins and inedible. According to Gerald Carr with the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, the mature seeds were used for dyes. Mixed with alum, the seeds yield a yellow dye; with iron, they make a black dye.

Karl Plumier (1646-1704), a Franciscan monk and missionary to the West Indies in the late 1600s, named Caesalpinia in honor of Andrea Cesalpino (Andreas Caesalpinus). Caesalpinus (1519-1603) was a botanist, a naturalist, a philosopher, and a physician. In his 70s, he went to Rome to serve as physician to Pope Clement VIII.

Caesalpinus was the first to study plants for the sake of the plants and not for their medicinal or magical uses as had 'botanists' of the past. He began ordering plants into families based upon the characteristics of their flowers and fruit. Caesalpinus was one of the first to collect and preserve plants creating a herbarium for Bishop Tornabono. And he wrote De Plantis Libris XVI—The Book of Plants in 16 volumes.

Caesalpinus laid the foundations upon which Plumier (in collecting) and later, Linnaeus (in organizing) would build. Linnaeus retained the genus, Caesalpinia, but did not apply the name to the pride-of-Barbados. He named the shrub, Poinciana pulcherrima, the genus honoring Poincy, the first French governor of the West Indies. Poinciana is now generally used as a common and not scientific name.

To view a photograph of the royal poinciana (Delonix regia), see the Plant of the Week, August 18, 2003

http://www.killerplants.com/plant-of-the-week/20030818.asp

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY 1976; "Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Dwarf Poinciana", Edward F. Gilman and Dennis G. Watson, Fact Sheet ST-107, Forest Service, USDA, November 1993 and "Andrea Cesalpino", Joseph Rompel, Catholic Encyclopedia, K. Knight, 2003.)