Yellow Bird of Paradise

Erythrostemon gilliesii

yellow bird of paradise blooming at Academy Village

About the Plant

Please note: This plant is sometimes called Mexican bird of paradise or desert bird of paradise. These two names, as well as yellow bird of paradise, are sometimes given to other plants. Make sure to use the scientific name of this plant if you try to purchase it at a nursery.

Yellow bird of paradise, a shrub native to Argentina and Uruguay, has naturalized in parts of southern Arizona. It is cold-deciduous, dropping its leaves at about 25°F but otherwise hardy in our area. The large flowers are showy, with yellow petals and long, bright red stamens, appearing in May and continuing through the summer.

Yellow bird looks best and flowers more reliably if irrigated in summer. It has a naturally open form. Fertilization will increase fullness as will removing spent flower stalks. Otherwise, prune very lightly if at all. The wood is very brittle and the plant is slow to recover from heavy pruning.

CAUTION: seeds and pods are poisonous.

Notes:

  • The previous scientific name for this plant was Caesalpinia gilliesii and that name may still be commonly used in the nursery trade.
  • Yellow bird of paradise may reseed in the landscape and has become naturalized at numerous locations in the southwestern U.S.
  • A completely unrelated plant - Strelitzia reginae - also goes by the name of "bird of paradise".  It is used extensively in southern California and is the official flower of the City of Los Angeles.
  • Two other plants grown in the Tucson area go by the name of "bird of paradise":
    • Red bird of paradise - Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Distinguished by the many short, flexible spines on the stems.
    • Mexican bird of paradise - Erythrostemon mexicanus. Distinguished from yellow bird of paradise by having short, green or yellow-green stamen rather than long, red stamen.

Wildlife value: attracts hummingbirds and possibly butterflies

More Information

Weekly Plant on birds of paradise

Horticultural information from ASU

Map of distribution in US (blue means plant is not native; light blue means the plant is found in those counties)

In books:

Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest by Mary Irish, page 140

ID Characteristics

This plant is in the Fabaceae - the legume (pea and bean) family.

Yellow bird of paradise is an open, irregular shrub that can grow to 10 feet and almost as wide but is often less (shrub in photo is about 5 feet).

The very newest growth is red but quickly changes to green. There are numerous white markings (lenticels). The stems have an appearance of vertical streaking as well and there are no thorns.

The leaves are alternate and bipinnately compound ranging from 5 inches to over 10 inches. Each leaf has between 12 and 26 sections held to the sides of the leaf stalk plus a terminal section, each section with up to 20 leaflets (the leaf in the photo above has 12 sections held to the side of the leaf stalk with the terminal section looking as if it is on top of one of the side sections). The leaflets are small, up to only 1/4 inch long. Overall, the leaf is only 2-3 inches wide. In warm climates this shrub keeps its leaves all winter, dropping them only as new leaves start to grow in spring. In cooler climates such as Tucson, this plant drops its leaves every winter.
The flowers are held in a tight vertical cluster that eventually grows to about 8 inches high. Flowers at the bottom of the cluster open first. However, only a few flowers are open at one time.
The flowers are yellow with 5 petals and distinctive, long, red stamens that are at least 2 inches long and can be up to 5 inches. The stamens droop as the flower fades. The flower petals, flower stalk, inflorescence stalk and fruit are covered with small reddish-brown glands that make the plant sticky to the touch. Click on the photo above to see the glands more clearly.
The fruit is a pea pod about 3 inches long, initially green with a red edge and covered with glands. It is held on a stalk about 1.5 inches long. The fruit matures to brown, then opens with an audible pop, expelling seeds in a wide arc.