File:African Tulip Tree (48854279092).jpg

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An African tulip tree in bloom is a remarkable burst of color. Consequently, the tree has earned many monikers: flame of the forest, fountain tree, and fireball. Scientists know it as Spathodea campanulata and this East African Native has been in Hawaiʻi for a long time. Renowned physician and botanist William Hillebrand first planted African tulip trees in Hawaiʻi in the late 1800s. Around 1915 Joseph Rock, another prominent figure in Hawaiian botany, introduced S. campanulata seeds collected in Java. In the late 1920s and 30s foresters planted and dropped African tulip seeds by air throughout many parts of the state. On Maui nearly 30,000 trees were planted. But as the “flame of the forest” spread and awareness of invasive species increased, people began to be concerned about the trees spreading.

We now know that African tulip trees are invasive and damaging to Hawaiian ecosystems. They grow extremely fast; in Puerto Rico they can increase 2” in diameter per year, shooting up from the forest floor and outcompeting other plants for sunlight. They can be a notorious pasture pest, springing up when land is cleared and creating a field of tulip trees with little else. Prolific seeders, their papery oatmeal-like seeds blow in the wind for miles. But perhaps what makes these trees most invasive is their shade-tolerant seedlings.
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Source African Tulip Tree
Author Kirt Edblom from Kihei, Hi, United States
Camera location20° 51′ 31.29″ N, 156° 09′ 17.96″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Kirt Edblom at https://flickr.com/photos/27190564@N02/48854279092. It was reviewed on 9 May 2021 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

9 May 2021

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current18:24, 9 May 2021Thumbnail for version as of 18:24, 9 May 20216,000 × 4,000 (13.47 MB)Sentinel user (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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