The Welcome Tree (Schotia Brachypetala)

enjoying his veranda hospitality, I asked the name
of that large tree just near the homestead fence;
A Welcome Tree, he said, explaining that it's what
the family calls their "family tree"; Grandad had
soldiered for Good Queen Vic against the Boers and
brought its seeds back in his kit; he always said
it was a sign of hope to plant a tree, and this one
welcomes anyone at all who needs a feed; he
planted one beside his homestead and another
by his gate, and all the family since have done
the same; its proper name's a Drunken Parrot
Tree because they love the booze-up when
the nectar’s on; as it was when Grandad died and
Grandma strode into its raucous crimson riot so
she could dress his casket with the hopeful bloom
            of God’s eccentric hospitality

©the Rev. Jim McPherson

Image The Drunken Parrot Tree, known in Southern Africa as The Weeping Boer Bean. www.slowvelder.wordpress.com/2011/a-crying-tree-the-weeping-boer-bean/#comment-18100

Jim says that he first encountered a Drunken Parrot Tree at Moonie in Queensland, Australia on the Western Darling Downs. Subsquently, he discovered some trees had been planted in the hockey grounds in Maryborough, Queensland where he lived for six years.