Background: With its origins in Australia, Africa and the West Indies, the Chinese Lantern Tree is considered a shrub or small tree. This tree is invasive, sprouts from root runners, suckers and seeds.
Features: The flowers, the flowers, the flowers.... you never get tired of looking at those flowers. Oval, bullet shaped flowers which hang upside down. The Chinese Lantern tree flower when hanging upside down as it grows naturally is pink at the top 1/2 to 2/3rds of the flower and bright yellow at the bottom. As the flower fades it turns white. From the flower the seed pods emerge and grow. The seed pods are curled and contorted, growing in bunches and are almost if not just as interesting as the flowers. AN EXCELLENT CHOICE FOR A BONSAI - YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED. Definately one of my favorites, for bonsai and the landscape. The Chinese Lantern has a wonderful yellowish bark that upon maturity becomes fissured and sheds. Watch out!, this plant has small but very sharp thorns. The leaves (similar growth to a jacaranda leaf) are 5 - 8 inches long. The leaflets are in 18 - 22 pairs and are very fine from 1/16 - 1/8 inches long. Every leaf juncture has a thorn. This tree is a rapid grower, often sprouting new branches from the trunk. You can easily bonsai and the leaves are not so large that you cannot get a beautiful natural look. Tolerates pruning and buds back well. Watch out for the thorns.
