Erythrina caffra Thunb.
Frost-tender, wide-spreading, semi-evergreen tree with sometimes prickly branches, prickly-stalked leaves composed of 3 leaflets, and dense, terminal racemes, to 15cm long, of orange-scarlet flowers with broad, arching, standard petals, in spring. To 18m. [RHSE, Hortus].
Horticultural & Botanical History
‘This beautiful shrub is a native of southern Africa, and flowered for the first time, we believe, in this country in the Count de Vandes stove in July last, where our drawing was taken, we have heard that it has also flowered this summer at Wormleybury. No figure, has to our knowledge, been hitherto published of this very beautiful species.’ [BM t.2431/1823]. There is some confusion between the plant figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine as Erythrina caffra Thunb. and that published in the Botanical Register under the same name [BR f.736/1823]. The former is probably correctly identified, the latter being Erythrina humeana Spreng., a dwarf species from southern Africa, which see.
History at Camden Park
Listed in the 1845, 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.423/1845].
Notes
Erythrina caffra Ker-Gawl. (1825) = Erythrina humeana Spreng. BR f.736/1825. RHSD (1951) gives E. humeana as a synonym of E. caffra. A plant under the name Erythrina humeana was also grown at Camden. [See Erythrina humeana Spreng.]
Erythrina caffra Blanco (1845) = Erythrina ovalifolia Roxb.
Published Dec 17, 2009 - 04:46 PM | Last updated Jul 21, 2010 - 11:57 AM
Erythrina caffra Thunb. | BM t.2431/1823 | BHL
| Family | Fabaceae |
|---|---|
| Category | |
| Region of origin | South Africa |
| Synonyms | |
| Common Name | Cape kaffirboom, Lucky bean tree |
| Name in the Camden Park Record |
Erythrina Caffra |
| Confidence level | high |
