This strikingly beautiful yellow flower is called sonapati. Some also call it chandraprabha. In summer or the monsoon, the yellow flowers appear in large clusters at the tips of the branches. Manjur Morshed Ruman gives the details.

It is a plant of the Bignoniaceae family, with the scientific name Tecoma stans. Its other common names include yellow bells, yellow trumpet and yellow elder.

The flower is native to the Americas. It is the official flower of the US Virgin Islands and is used as the floral emblem of the Bahamas. The plant is now also being widely planted in Bangladesh.

The plant is evergreen, with a somewhat spreading crown. The leaves are compound and lance-shaped, with toothed edges. The corolla is funnel-shaped and 3-4 cm wide. The fruit is dry and splits open, 12-20 cm long, with small seeds. It is propagated by seed and cuttings. Another species, Tecoma gaudichaudi, flowers almost all year round. Sonapati is a bushy plant growing up to 4 metres tall. The leaves are 8-15 cm long, 2-3 in number.

Yellow flowers bloom in large clusters at the branch tips, looking much like yellow bells. Though they bloom in summer, the monsoon and late autumn, they can be found almost all year round.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.