I love the flamboyán trees here, they are commonly used as street trees and when they are all covered in blooms in the spring it is an incredible sight. The local belief is that when the flamboyán blooms the rainy season has truly arrived. Any short rains before that can be a false flag but the trees know.
This winter we had rain at least once a week throughout the normally dry season and the flamboyán were muted and did not bloom well. I don't know but I think there could be a need for a truly dry season to trip their bloom cycle. I noticed that while the blooms did not cover the tree as usual, they continued blooming a little at a time and in fact were blooming long before the real rains started.
