Coral Trees in Bloom

We have these magnificent trees growing on our property here on Roatan. Until recently, I never knew their name: Coral Tree. When we bought this land several years ago, we had very small trees growing along the road beside our house - they were more like shrubs, and that's what I thought they were. They continued to grow, quickly, and are now 20+ feet tall. Kinda tall for a shrub and yet they don't grow up from just one trunk, which sounds more like a shrub. We now have these trees surrounding our half-acre, just like the banana trees do.

I love these gorgeous flowers. The Coral Trees start blooming in late January or early February and continue until sometime in March. I like that they don't all bloom at once, nor does one tree show all its blooms at once. They drag it out, so we get to enjoy the blooms much longer. I love the leaves, too.

The blooms last quite awhile, except when discovered by the leaf-cutter ants. They have really eaten their way through the trees along the road and most of the flowers fell off before they were completely opened.  Thankfully, we have more than they can eat!