The Panama flame tree is native across the tropical areas of central and south America including Panama and Venezuela.
The trees, around 5 to 10 m high can eventually be up to 25 m.
The 20 to 30 cm wide trunk has smooth grey-brown bark.
Mature trees have arching branches in a dense canopy up to 6 m across.
Young branches have long soft hairs.
The alternately arranged leaves are often inserted close together in groups.
Petioles, a few cms long have deciduous stipules at the base.
The paripinnate leaves, up to 40 or 45 cm long have dense hairs on the petiole and midrib.
The midrib has 3 to 10 or 15 pairs of opposite to sub-opposite leaflets on hairy 5 mm long petiolules.
The ovate basal leaflets are up to around 12 cm long and 5 cm wide.
The terminal pair of ovate to obovate leaflets are 15 to 30 cm long and up to around 10 cm wide.
Leaflet ends narrow abruptly into a long thin pointed tip.
Pendulous young leaves can be pinkish to almost white.
Shiny green adult leaves may have some hairs on the lower surface.
Inflorescences are terminal or on the trunk (cauliflorous).
Roughly spherical heads, up to 25 cm across can have 50 to over 100 flowers.
The 6 cm long peduncle has dense short soft hairs.
Surrounding all the buds then at the base of the head is an involucre.
This consists of whorls of stiff dull reddish-brown bracts.
Heads are a very short raceme with the outer (basal) flowers opening first.
Flowers are on very hairy pedicels up to 2 cm long with bracteoles at the base.
Densely hairy bracteoles, up to 5 cm long are fused into a tube with 2 long pointed lobes.
Mostly obscured by the persistent bracteoles is the up to 3 cm long hypanthium.
Attached to its rim are the 4 sepals and 5 petals.
The red sepals, partly hidden by the bracteoles have a rounded tip and hairs on the outer surface.
They are up to around 3 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm wide.
The bright red or slightly orange petals are on a claw base a few mms wide.
The overlapping obovate lobes can be 6 to 7 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide.
Also on the rim of the hypanthium are 11 stamens 8 to 12 cm long.
The bases of the red filaments are fused into a tube around 2.5 cm long.
The free ends, with the oblong dorsifixed yellow anthers extend past the petals.
The superior ovary is on a stalk (stipe) that lies within the hypanthium.
The smooth narrow stipe is fused to one side of the hypanthium.
The ovary, from a single carpel has 1 locule and is covered in a thick layer of pale hairs.
The short ovary, with the red style can be 8 to 9 cm long.
The oblong brown legumes are up to 20 cm long and 3 cm wide.
Compressed sideways they have a few seeds 3 to 4 cm long and around 1 cm wide.
There is a hybrid of Brownea grandiceps and Brownea macrophylla.
Referenced on the Flora Malesiana site, Verdcourt and A.C. Smith remarked that … “the identities of the widely cultivated species of this genus are difficult and confused; cultivated hybrids further complicate identification and it is often not possible to accurately name the plants”.
J.F.
