I had never seen an African tulip tree before relocating from Southern Florida to Hawaii and I fell in love with this extravagant and exuberant evergreen tree that grows along roads here on the Big Island where it has been naturalized although it is native to tropical Africa. I discovered it is in the more familiar Bignonia family or Trumpet vine named for its fluted flowers. The football-sized flowers have velvety brown claw-like buds in the center surrounded by brilliant orange frilly and elaborately scalloped petals. The buds are filled with pressurized watery nectar containing the embryo flowers that split open to unfurl.  If the plump buds are squeezed, I found they make a perfect water pistol! I surrounded one cluster of buds with orange and yellow glory bush leaves to resemble petals and added a green cacao pod along with  several yellowing ones from our small grove. I also added some slender flower pods of the Cecropia tree and a pitch apple resembling a pale green mangosteen.Theres also a split open Malabar chestnut pod filled with edible nuts surrounded by fuzzy white pulp. Despite their name they are not native to the Malabar Coast of India but Central and South America and are also known as the lucky money tree especially if the young tree trunks are braided together as one often sees in Asian markets. I wanted to showcase the amazing Tulip flowers with plants that grow right outside my door and their pods.