The leaves kind of remind me of a poison ivy leaf, has the shiny look to it. I forgot to mention...this is in SW Florida, blooming right now and has been for a few weeks. Flowers continually blooming, others dropping off.
I think i know that bush/tree but i can't think of the name. They are commonly seen in my area. A close up of the flower would help, maybe and a close up of a couple of leaves together.
Thank you all. Here are some more pictures. And yes, that is what it is, African Tulip Tree. It is an invasive plant, but I am going to try and do some cuttings to plant on the back side of my property. No problem being invasive there. And I did read that parts of the plant may be poisonous. Interesting one site said the African's would boil the seed pods to make a poison to put on the end of their arrows to kill their prey....hopefully that wasn't for......
Good photos of the flowers Freckles. Yes that is the tree (it can get quite large) that was hanging over my patio when i lived in Guadalajara before moving to Colima. The problem i have here is that the people really don't care about the names of trees and everything with red or close to red flowers is called a "flame tree" and everything with yellow flowers is called a "golden shower" tree. So now, both you and i know it is a Spathodea campanulata. What really irritated me about this tree is that it would leaf and flower in the winter (when you want the sun to come through) and in the summer it was bare (when you are wanting some shade). I don't know if it will do the same thing where you are (possibly it will bloom twice a year), but if you keep it, you might want to keep it well pruned. I would estimate that the tree above my patio was close to 30' tall. For a real knock out of a red flowering tree, i would recommend the Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia). Now that tree is a real show stopper and it will love your climate.
Thank you for the info "vitrsna". The tree is near a parking lot where I go, and I have never noticed how pretty the tree is til this year, it really is blooming. Must be a good year for it here in Florida. It does make a mess on the ground, so I will keep it way in the back of property where I can enjoy the blooms and not notice the ground area. Yes the Royal Poinciana seems to be just blooming in my town now. One particular tree has stopped me dead in my tracks and I had to take a pic of it. Beautiful. I do have 3 golden rain trees that I was given and transplanted, but they still have not reached the flowering stage. They are well established for 4 years now, but no flowers yet. The tallest being about 10' now. I'm so glad for this website to have knowledgeable people to help me with gardening or flower/tree questions.
Freckles I am soooooo jealous as the beauty of that tree almost outweighs it being an invasive. I will have to take a look to see why it was given that designation. We have a tree here in Wisconsin that is called"Black Locus tree". Every part of it is poisonous. When I lived in a different town our big dogs use to love to run in the back yard and play with any sticks they found laying around. I always had to search the yard and pic up any sticks from that tree. They were pretty easy to ID as they have little thorns on them. But in the spring they have a blossom that looks like a Chestnut trees. They smell is so wonderful I stand outside and inhale deeply.