Plants in Israel | Peltophorum dubium

Peltophorum dubium, Baryxylum dubium, Caesalpinia dubia, Peltophorum vogelianum, Yellow Poinciana, Copperpod, Horsebush,

Hebrew: שלטית מקומטת, Arabic: بلتوفورم مجعد

Scientific name:   Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub.
Synonym name:   Baryxylum dubium (Spreng.) Pierre, Caesalpinia dubia Spreng., Peltophorum vogelianum Benth.
Common name:   Yellow Poinciana, Copperpod, Horsebush
Hebrew name:   שלטית מקומטת
Arabic name:   بلتوفورم مجعد
Family:   Fabaceae or Papilionaceae, Legume / Pea Family, משפחת הפרפרניים


Life form:   Semi-deciduous tree. In its native South America it is evergreen, but in colder regions (including most of Israel), it sheds its leaves.
Stems:   Young stems with fine, dense, rusty-brown to greyish, closely appressed puberulence or pubescence, also with small, stalked, swollen-headed glands.
Leaves:   Bipinnate (twice-compound) leaves are composed of small deep green leaflets that resemble the leaves of its relative – Delonix regia, the royal poinciana.
Inflorescence:   A loose raceme, racemes often ± aggregated and panicled; bracts usually linear-lanceolate and deciduous.
Flowers:   Hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube very short, lobes 5, imbricate, subequal, longer than the tube. Petals 5, subequal, the upper one often shorter than the others, ± spathulate, strongly imbricate. Stamens 10, declinate; filaments free, conspicuously brown- villous basally, glabrous above; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary sessile or subsessile, brown-pubescent or -tomentose, 2 to many-ovuled; style filiform, pubescent basally, glabrous above; stigma broadly peltate.
Fruits / pods:   Flat brown pods; cylindrical seeds with hard nuts.
Flowering Period:   July, August
Habitat:   Planted mainly in gardens and large parks
Distribution:   the Coastal Plain and the Lowlands
Chorotype:   Southern America
Summer shedding:   Perennating


Derivation of the botanical name:

Peltophorum, Greek pelta, a shield; phoreo, to bear; from the form of the stigma of these tropical trees.

dubium, doubtful, in the sense of not following the genus pattern.
Baryxylum, from barys, heavy, and zylon, wood; the wood of the tree is very heavy.
Caesalpinia, named in honor of Andreas Caesalpini (1519 – 1603), an Italian botanist and physician to Pope Clement VIII.
The Hebrew name: שלטית (Celtic), derived from the aristocratic signs that shield is the central element in them; the scar of the pestle is wide and flattened like a war shield.
מקומטת (mekumetet),”wrinkled” by the wrinkled petals of the flowers.

  • The standard author abbreviation Spreng. is used to indicate Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (1766 – 1833), a German, botanist and physician
  • The standard author abbreviation Taub. is used to indicate Paul Hermann Wilhelm Taubert (1862 – 1897), a German botanist.

It is often planted in Israel because of its broad shade and its spectacular flowering in the summer. Pollinators- Bees, Insects.