United States / Grow / bird-of-paradise shrub

bird-of-paradise shrub (Caesalpinia gilliesii)
Photo: (c) mel letterman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

bird-of-paradise shrub

Caesalpinia gilliesii (accepted: Erythrostemon gilliesii) · Fabaceae · all Caesalpinia records · also called Yellow bird of paradise · syn. Caesalpinia gilliesii · Wikipedia

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Form
shrub
Mature height
~35 ft
Water need
low
Rated in
Yavapai County, Arizona
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Evidence regions
Yavapai County, Arizona
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AZ, CA, GA, NM, NV, OK, PR, TX, UT.
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 9b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (1)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)
  • Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34) — University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County · v1.2 · original source Corroboration Expert-curated lineage: unknown

    “Fire-Resistant Plants”

    Listed as Yellow bird of paradise — Caesalpinia gilliesii. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Caesalpinia gilliesii (Yellow bird of paradise). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/caesalpinia-gilliesii/. Last verified 2026-08-23.