在台北、宜蘭、嘉義等地常可見到台灣欒樹（別名金雨樹、燈籠樹、四色樹），在秋季時，它金黃的花朵、粉紅如燈籠般的果實引人注目，也因此帶團時不免被客人問到那是什麼樹？所以決定花點時間了解台灣欒樹，也熟悉一下相關英語用法，這樣再被客人問到時，就可以不用開玩笑的說：“It’s something nature”帶過了><”。
以下的介紹主要是依據網路上找到的一個檔名為「台灣欒樹小檔案」 的Word檔，然後經過我重點整理轉為英文介紹的講點。
特性
Flame Goldrain Tree (Taiwan Golden-rain Tree) originally only grew in Taiwan. It likes to grow in a sunny spot so when you see it you’ll know the climate of where you are. It’s cheerful and optimistic coz it likes sunshine; it’s hardworking coz it’s a drought-tolerant plant and survives in poor soil.
外觀
Flame Goldrain Tree looks different in four seasons. In Spring, it’s light green and in Summer, it’s dark green; in Fall, it’s yellow and in the beginning of Winter, it’s yellowish pink, which is the color of its fruit that looks like lantern.
功用
It’s very ideal to be a street tree for viewing, shading, resisting pollution, and absorbing a lot of noise.
Its flower can be yellow dye; seeds can be worn into rosary beads; the whole plant can be used medicinally.
The Rukai tribe in Taitung have found that it has the function of judging the movement of typhoons. When the tree blooms, it indicates that it is about to enter the typhoon season, so it is necessary to make good preparations for the prevention of typhoons. When the flowers turn yellow, it means that the first typhoon is coming. When the flowers turn yellowish pink and bear fruits, it means that the typhoon season has come to an end. If a typhoon comes at this time, it must be a powerful autumn typhoon, they need to be more careful about it!
紅姬緣椿象
In winter, there are often soapberry bugs (紅姬緣椿象) that gather on the bottom of the tree to feed on the tree’s sap and seeds, which leads birds to feed on the bugs and to form a food chain. (The soapberry bugs spend a cold winter when they are imagoes, and they cluster together for warmth by making use of the weak/faint heat energy emitted by respiratory metabolism.)
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