A tree with ash coloured bark. Leaves with 7-25 cm long petiole, crowded towards the end of branches; lamina usually palmately 3-5-lobed, cordate, 10-20 cm long, 12-25 cm broad; stipules lanceolate. Panicle short, terminal. Flowers covered with red or orange-red coral-like pubescence, appearing before the leaves; pedicel 5-7 mm long. Calyx broadly tubular or funnel-shaped, hairy at the base within, 2-3 cm long with 2-3 mm long triangular lobes. Staminal column red, with 10-30 sessile, yellow anthers. Styles short, recurved. Follicles lanceolate-elliptic to oblong, 4-7 cm long, straw coloured, reticulate, 2-seeded. Seeds yellow, wrinkled or smooth, ovoid, c. 1 cm long.

Fl.Per.: March-May.

Type: Described from Rajmundry Circar mountains, Coromandal, India.

Distribution: A native of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), south west India eastwards to Burma, Bangla Desh, cultivated in our area.

An ornamental plant with scarlet or deep orange flowers looking like a mass of coral on the bare branches. Hindus and Ceylonese regard it as a sacred plant. Branches yield fibre of inferior quality and branches with young leaves are used in India as fodder.