While walking and driving around Borrego Springs, I kept noticing these really beautiful flowering shrubs.  The bees and hummingbirds were noticing them too. I couldn't stand it and got out my phone and found them pretty quickly online.  Then, of course, I couldn't find that site again when I went back to research them. Then,I found that there are about 20 pages of sites referring to Poinciana, FLORIDA!  Seems to be quite a nice community with many of the trees called "Royal Poinciana" or Delonix regia, which is native to Madagascar.  (Brings to mind the animated movie with all the zoo creatures singing and dancing.)

Finally, I found something resembling the site I first found dealing with Borrego Springs.  The one pictured is the Dwarf Peacock Poinciana tree, Caesalpinia pulcherrima.  The DesertSun.com site is really wonderful in describing the plants in the area.  This plant is native to Barbados and is its national flower.  It can grow 15 to 20 feet in height, but in frost-prone climates, it stays smaller and can be pruned to make a nice hedge.  That being said, it tolerates pruning very well. It needs well-drained soil and full sunlight.  The seed pods can be quite messy when they fall to the ground.  They are drought and salt-tolerant plants.

 

This is just another reason that visiting the desert is a nice diversion from home.