Erythrina herbacea
Erythrina flabelliformis
eastern coral or Cherokee bean, eastern coralbean, red cardinal
coral or western coral bean, coralbean, western coralbean
thin-herbaceous, blades ovate-acuminate to hastate-ovate, subtrilobed, terminal blade (2–)3–8(–13) × 2–11 cm, base truncate to broadly cuneate.
thin-herbaceous, blades broadly ovate to depressed ovate, unlobed, terminal blade (3–)5–7.5 × (3–)4–11 cm, base truncate to slightly obtuse.
of herbaceous forms appearing before or with leafy stems, flowers and leaves usually on separate stems, 20–60(–75)-flowered.
appearing before or with developing leaves, flowers and leaves on same stem, 25–80-flowered.
calyx tube short-cylindric to obconic, 5–8 mm, apex truncate and unlobed;
corolla banner elliptic-oblong, 3–5 cm, folded and pseudotubular, wings and keel short, slightly protruding from calyx.
calyx tube short-obconic, 6–8 mm, apex truncate and unlobed;
corolla banner elliptic-oblong, 4–7 cm, folded and pseudotubular, wings and keel reduced, not protruding from calyx.
6–15(–21) cm.
12–25(–35) cm.
(1–)3–6, red to orange-red or orange.
5–10, red to orange-red or orange with black marking.
Erythrina herbacea
Erythrina flabelliformis
Over most of the range of Erythrina herbacea, the plants are herbaceous perennials with flowers and leaves on separate stems (flowers borne on leafless stems) arising separately from the underground root. In many counties of Florida, as well as Gulf states from Georgia to Texas, flowers and leaves are often borne on the same stem; the flowers usually in a dense to loose raceme and usually distal to the leaves, sometimes axillary. Some of these plants are herbaceous. In southernmost Florida, the stems are usually distinctly woody and perennial with deciduous leaves. J. K. Small (1933) distinguished E. arborea on this basis, noting also that the banner was slightly shorter in E. arborea (35–40 versus 45–50 mm in E. herbacea); these forms are conspecific.
A single white-petaled plant in a population of red-petaled ones from Pinellas County, Florida, has been described (Erythrina herbacea forma albiflora Moffler & Crewz).
Plants of Mexico previously treated as the strictly Mexican Erythrina herbacea subsp. nigrorosea Krukoff & Barneby have been treated as E. nigrorosea (Krukoff & Barneby) G. L. Nesom (G. L. Nesom 2016). They differ from E. herbacea in their pink corollas and black calyces and consistently shrubby habit; E. nigrorosea may be more closely related to the Mexican-Central American E. goldmanii Standley and E. standleyana Krukoff. Erythrina herbacea and E. nigrorosea are sympatric in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
In the flora area, Erythrina flabelliformis is found mostly in mountains of south-central and southeastern Arizona and southwestern and southern New Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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