Erythrina
coral tree, erythrina
erect or sprawling, glabrous.
alternate, odd-pinnate;
stipules present, persistent or caducous, narrowly oblong to lanceolate, triangular, or foliaceous;
petiolate;
leaflets 3, stipels present [absent], caducous [persistent], swollen, glandlike, 1 mm, blade margins entire, surfaces glabrous;
prickles sometimes on petioles, petiolules, and laminar veins.
20–80[–100]-flowered, terminal or axillary, pyramidal columnar pseudoracemes, flowers often in whorls;
bracts and bracteoles absent or small and caducous.
papilionaceous;
calyx zygomorphic, broadly campanulate, with reduced lobes or spathiform-tubular and 2-lipped, lobes 0(or 5);
corolla red [red-orange], petals with connate proximal margins, glabrous, banner much longer than wings and keel, not reflexed, pseudotubular and enclosing wings, keel, and stamens;
stamens 10, diadelphous, vexillary stamen distinct, others connate into a sheath along 2/3–4/5 their length, exserted, shorter than banner, [monadelphous, or mostly distinct];
anthers dorsifixed, uniform, dehiscing longitudinally;
style glabrous;
stigma terminal, relatively small, usually 2-lobed.
legumes, stipitate, terete to laterally compressed, narrowly oblong-cylindric, dehiscent, regularly or irregularly constricted between seeds, leathery to woody, glabrous.
(1–)3–10, slightly compressed, red to orange-red or orange, sometimes with black markings, oblong to oblong-elliptic or oblong-reniform in outline;
hilum narrowly elliptic, without aril.
= 21.
Erythrina
Species ca. 120 (2 in the flora).
Seeds of most Erythrina species are highly toxic, but E. edulis Triana ex M. Micheli has long been cultivated as a food source in the tropical highlands of South America. The seeds must be boiled or fried; they contain amino acids and provide a base for tortillas, desserts, pies, soups, and food for infants (F. R. Ruskin 1989).
Red is the characteristic flower color in the genus, but white-flowered individuals and orange-flowered species occur, and orange, yellow, salmon, green, and white variants are found within natural populations of Erythrina sandwicensis O. Degener, the only member of the genus endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.
Shrubby and arboreal species of Erythrina are planted as ornamentals in the flora area for their brilliant red to scarlet petals. The native South American Erythrina crista-galli Linnaeus is widely planted as a street or garden tree in California and in towns along the Gulf Coast; plants underlying a view of it as naturalized are either persisting from cultivation or better regarded as waifs (G. L. Nesom 2015b).
Erythrina caffra Thunberg, the African coral tree, may be naturalized in California, as documented by records in the Consortium of California Herbaria database from Orange and San Diego counties. It was included in the San Diego County flora by J. P. Rebman and M. G. Simpson (2014). It is a tree to 12 m (rarely to 21 m) with orange-scarlet corollas in which the banner curves upward, exposing the other corolla parts and the stamens.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaflet blades ovate-acuminate to hastate-ovate, subtrilobed; herbs or shrubs; s, se United States. | E. herbacea |
1. Leaflet blades broadly ovate to depressed ovate, unlobed; shrubs or small trees; Arizona, New Mexico. | E. flabelliformis |
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