The Coral bean (Erythrina herbacea) also known as the Cherokee bean, Red cardinal or Cardinal spear, is a flowering tree found throughout the south-eastern United States and north-eastern Mexico; it has also been reported from parts of Central America and, as an introduced species, from Pakistan.

The coral bean grows as a low shrub or small tree, reaching around 5 metres in height in areas that do not kill it back by freezing. Its yellowish-green leaves are around 20cm long and are divided into 8cm leaflets, shaped like arrowheads. Its bark is smooth and yellowish. The bright red flowers from which the tree gets its name grow in long clusters, each flower being around 5cm long; the tree blooms from February to June. They are followed by pods containing bright red seeds, which are poisonous enough to have been used in the past as a rat poison.

The coral bean grows in pinelands, hammocks, and disturbed areas. Within its natural range it can readily be grown in gardens. Although its use in gardens is not particularly common, it is popular among those who do grow it as a source of early season colour, for its hardiness, and because it attracts hummingbirds.

Native Americans had many medicinal uses for this plant, varying between nations and localities. Creek women used an infusion of the root for bowel pain in women; the Choctaw used a decoction of the leaves as a general tonic; the Seminole used an extract of the roots for digestive problems, and extracts of the seeds, or of the inner bark, as an external rub for rheumatic disorders.

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.

External links

• Entry on the coral bean in the University of South Florida Institute of Systematic Botany's Atlas of Florida's Vascular Plants (http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/main.asp?plantID=3264)
• Species account from the USDA Agriculture Research Service's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) (http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?15748)
• Plants data base entry (http://plantsdatabase.com/go/2724/index.html)

Reference

• Additional information from P. Alden et. al., National Audobon Society field guide to Florida. New York: Knopf, (1988).