Costa Mesa : African Seed From Hawaii Blooms in County

It was discovered in 1787 along Africa’s Gold Coast and is found most often in tropical environs such as Hawaii, but Paul Brecht’s African tulip tree is doing just fine, thank you, in the parking lot of his Costa Mesa garden shop.

The 5-year-old tree was grown from a seed Brecht plucked from a tree he admired while on tour of the National Cemetery in Honolulu. Not knowing the name of the tree or what the blossoms would look like, Brecht planted the seed in a container and waited.

It wasn’t until brilliant orange flowers with yellow throats emerged from the small, brown, banana-like pods that Brecht was able to look the plant up and identify it as an African tulip tree--a rare plant for California.

According to David Verity, senior museum scientist at UCLA’s Botanical Gardens, Spathodea campanulata are native to West Africa, Hawaii and other tropical regions but are “not too common along the California coast.”

“In areas that get a lot of frost, it isn’t worth planting,” Verity said.

Veteran orchid grower Brecht, 68, is not surprised that the tree has thrived here: “We have one of the best areas right here in Southern California, where the climate is air-conditioned and (almost) frost-free. It’s a good climate for growing tropical plants.”

Although the tree has suffered some damage from cool nights, Brecht’s specimen is in good condition.

“Being in the nursery business all my life, it wasn’t that difficult to know how to care for it,” he said. “I just planted the seed, and when it started to grow, I moved it to the parking lot.”

Although visitors often comment on its beautiful blossoms, seeds from the tree are not yet available.

“We’ll make the seeds available as soon as we get seed pods,” Brecht said.