朱缨花 zhu ying hua

Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, 1-3 m tall. Branchlets brown, cylindric, rough. Stipules persistent, ovate-lanceolate; petiole 1-2.5 cm; pinnae 1 pair, 8-13 cm; petiolules ca. 1 mm; leaflets 7-9 pairs, obliquely lanceolate, 2-4 cm × 7-15 mm, sparsely pilose along margin, midvein close to upper margin, base oblique, apex obtuse, mucronate. Heads axillary, ca. 3 cm in diam. (including filaments); peduncles 1-3.5 cm. Calyx cam­panulate, ca. 2 mm. Corolla purplish; tube 3.5-5 mm, 5-lobed; lobes reflexed, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Stamens numerous, scarlet, very brilliant; staminal tube white, ca. 6 cm, mouth inside with a subulate appendix; filaments deep red, ca. 2 cm. Legume dull brown, linear-oblanceolate, 6-11 cm × 5-13 mm, valves elasti­cally open from apex to base along sutures when ripe, reflexed. Seeds 5 or 6, brown, oblong, 7-10 × ca. 4 mm. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct-Nov.

Cultivated in gardens of Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan [native to South America].

This plant is grown as an ornamental.