Coralbean
Erythrina herbacea
Summary 5
Erythrina herbacea, commonly known as the Coral Bean, Cherokee Bean, Red Cardinal or Cardinal Spear, is a flowering shrub or small tree found throughout the southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico; it has also been reported from parts of Central America and, as an introduced species, from Pakistan. Various other systematic names have been used for this plant in the past, including Erythrina arborea, Erythrina hederifolia, Erythrina humilis, Erythrina rubicunda, Corallodendron herbaceum and Xyphanthus hederifolius.
Description 6
Shrub or small tree; prickles few. Leaf trifoliolate, petiole 5-8 cm long; leaflet 3.5-10 cm long, 3-5 cm broad, orbicular or ovate, acuminate, glabrous, petiolule c. 4 mm long. Inflorescence a terminal raceme, c. 30 cm long, leafy below with distant flowers. Calyx c. 10-12.5 mm long, slightly bilabiate, glabrous. Corolla scarlet. Vexillum 4.5-5.0 cm long, c. 2.0 cm broad. Fruit 7.5-12.5 cm long, short beaked, seeds bright red with a black spot.
Sources and Credits
- (c) S Reilly, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/8293978@N06/5714627056
- (c) "<a href=""http://www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/"">USDA NRCS Texas State Office</a>.", some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=erhe4_002_ahp.tif
- (c) Matthew Herron, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Matthew Herron
- (c) Mikael Behrens, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Mikael Behrens
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_herbacea
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19795055
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- World Flora Online
