Flamboyant Trees Bursting Through the Sahara Dust

If you saw someone lurking around your yard yesterday, it might have been me. But I can’t help it! My obsession with the bright showy over-the-top flamboyant trees of the island is REAL.

And yesterday, we took a ride to town and south of town to take a look at this island’s beauties.

I wasn’t going to let the hazy dusty skies get in my way. June’s skies have been hazy from the dust but also from the high winds we’ve been experiencing all month long. Climate change? Super El Nino? I don’t know exactly but the winds have been notable. Especially if you are on the island to flyfish or dive…it’s been a tough month.

Here’s the website where you can see the dust progression – the big plume is coming!

Ok…back to the flamboyant trees. Considered to be one of the mostly vividly colored trees on the planet (or at least that what the internet says) and native to Madagascar…where all of the coolest plants originate. The Traveler Palm is also from Madagascar. You can see some of these gorgeous flowers (they are not technically trees) all over the island.

I asked Claude for his showiest most vibrant picks and he ranked Flamboyant #1 saying that basically “it’s basically a tree on fire”, #2 Jacaranda #3 Pink Trumpet Tree, #4 Cherry Blossom, #5 African Tulip Tree with Magnolia, Silk Floss Tree and Golden Shower Tree runners up.

To the flamboyants.

They grow beautifully here – they grow fast, they can start to flower in 3-4 years, and they can totally take the dry season.

I’ll start with the one I can peek at on the edge of our balcony – just so you can see how gorgeous the flowers are up close. Each one almost as big as my hand.

We headed south to some of the older neighborhoods on the island where a bunch of these are planted.

Our local orchid is this cowhorn orchid…usually found deep in the mangroves. The flowers come out once a year on huge stems…4…5 feet long. So the orchids stick out of the mangroves. They are gorgeous.

Not my best picture…but you can see the clusters of orchid plants on the flamboyant trees.

We had an amazing artist and friend staying at our camp over the last few weeks and he painted the orchids for us.

Here’s the work in progress.

The most gorgeous trees are south of town, in my opinion. The restaurant – Someplace South – has some STUNNERS that hang over the road.

And just south of it, I found my favorite…

This beauty. I even semi-snuck into the open yard to grab a giant seed pod…

SHE’S MAGNIFICENT! I still have my dream of planting these trees all over the island…I’ll be a female Belizean-American Johnny Appleseed with a…more interesting nickname? Becky Flamboyant? Says less botanical wonder-propagator and more old school porn name.

I’ll work on it.

We stopped soon after Pelican Reef Villas Resort. They’ve got a giant flamboyant!

When we noticed a traffic jam forming due to road paving. (You can see it starting in my seed pod pic above)

They have done lots of road paving work…and the paving extends down at least 1.5 miles. But for some reason, they were blocking both sides of the road…and we took that as a cue to turn around and head home.

There is only so much over-the-top colorful explosive beauty one can take in an afternoon!!!! Even if you name is Becky Flamboyant.

Take a ride and enjoy them…they are SOOOOO beautiful.