poinciana Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun small subgenus of ornamental tropical shrubs or trees; not recognized in some classifications
    subgenus Poinciana.
  2. noun a tropical flowering shrub having bright orange or red flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana
    bird of paradise; Poinciana gilliesii; Caesalpinia gilliesii.

WordNet

Poin`ci*a"na noun
Etymology
NL. Named after M. de Poinci, a governor of the French West Indies.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A prickly tropical shrub (Cæsalpinia, formerly Poinciana, pulcherrima), with bipinnate leaves, and racemes of showy orange-red flowers with long crimson filaments. ✍ The genus Poinciana is kept up for three trees of Eastern Africa, the Mascarene Islands, and India.

Webster 1913