Flamboyant Trees- Delonix Regia are blooming all over Lagos and I’m sure across Nigeria at this time of the year. They bloom fully from April to August and I started growing some this year from cuttings and from seed.
They are a very popular and most beautiful ornamental tree native to Madagascar but have been very widely introduced to tropical countries around the world. They love full sun, can tolerate a wide range of soils and are drought tolerant when mature. Generally grown as ornamentals in parks and gardens, as avenue or roadside trees, and also in residential and school compounds for shade and shelter, They can also be planted as a multipurpose tree on eroded sites for erosion control, and for soil rehabilitation and improvement through atmospheric nitrogen fixation. They are, like other shade trees very effective in conserving soil moisture and reducing soil temperature.
Unfortunately They have a spreading root system which can kill other plants in competition around them, thus rendering the surrounding ground bare to the detriment of other native species. If used and handled well, this shouldn’t be much of an ecological problem.
In other good news about this tree, they are also an important naturalized pollinator plant/tree here in Nigeria, especially in the North, though I’ve seen it personally in the south. A few sorts of bees especially honey bees, and other insects frequently visit the flamboyant tree for pollen and nectar.
I think it is amazing how it has been ordained and set up that trees mostly bloom and fruit at/around the same time, indicating the times and seasons of the year to us and other creatures. No matter how old or young they are, they are all in sync and eventually catch up to each other’s rhythms.
Not sure if it’s a perfect metaphor or parable but the point I, as well as God and Nature are trying to make is that we are all one and we should be one- when we all come together as one in agreement to do something, there is nothing that can stop us. That thing will surely manifest and be realized. This applies to the general problems we face as a society.
Just like the biblical story of the Tower of Babel where men had one goal and God said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”.
If we want to make our country better, reduce poverty, hunger, have a cleaner environment, stop/reduce plastic use, have a better improved education system, security, no corruption, reduce/stop deforestation and climate change and much more, they are possible. A group of people have to agree to make it work and we all also need to agree and take action towards the goal.
But unfortunately we tend to be so divided and all have our different ideas, opinions and each his/her own selfish agendas. We all speak different languages literally and metaphorically. We are our own problem and we have been doing this for a long time. Going round in circles. Maybe one day we can come together and agree and/or maybe it’s just a myth and unrealistic? I don’t know. That is up to us. These are my thoughts as I look up at the trees that line the streets and dot the landscape in clusters of fiery red.
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