Delonix

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants in the bean family Fabaceae}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Delonex regia.jpg

|image_caption = Royal poinciana (Delonix regia)

|taxon = Delonix

|authority = Raf. (1837){{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?3479 |title=Genus: Delonix Raf. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=1999-03-05 |access-date=2011-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227173421/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?3479 |archive-date=2014-02-27 |url-status=dead }}

|type_species = Delonix regia

|type_species_authority = (Bojer ex Hook.) Raf.{{cite web |url=http://tropicos.org/Name/40023189 |title=Delonix Raf. |work=TROPICOS |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |access-date=2009-10-22}}

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = See text

|synonyms =

• Aprevalia Baill. (1884)
• Lemuropisum {{small|H.Perrier (1938 publ. 1939)}}

|synonyms_ref = [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30339041-2 Delonix Raf.] Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 1 August 2023.

}}

Delonix is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae.{{cite journal | author = The Legume Phylogeny Working Group (LPWG). | year = 2017 | title = A new subfamily classification of the Leguminosae based on a taxonomically comprehensive phylogeny | journal = Taxon | volume = 66 | issue = 1 | pages = 44–77 | doi = 10.12705/661.3| doi-access = free | hdl = 10568/90658 | hdl-access = free }} It contains trees that are native to Madagascar and East Africa. By far the best known species is the Royal Poinciana (D. regia).

The name of the genus is derived from the Greek words δηλος (delos), meaning "evident," and ονυξ (onyx), meaning "claw," referring to the petals.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJ6PyhVuecwC |title=The Names of Plants |first=David |last=Gledhill |edition=4 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86645-3 |year=2008 |page=137}} The common name, poinciana, comes from a former genus of the same name in which the members of the current genus Delonix were classified along with plants now placed in the genus Caesalpinia.