PlantFiles: Cherokee Bean, Coral Bean
Erythrina herbacea

Pops up everywhere from the birds dropping the seeds. Takes a while, about three to four months, for the seeds to germinate. Hummingbirds love it. I cut mine back to keep the thorns under control.

Cherokee Bean has done really well in our alkaline, "gumbo" clay. It will die down to within an inch or two of the woody crown in the winter, but typically resprouts in early March, and blooms from mid-April to early May here in Boerne. Mine receive full sun from early morning to about one. In my experience, they typically grow to around 3 to 4 feet high, and will spread a little wider than that. They do have little prickles on the petioles, and larger ones on the stems, but they are such a treat to grow.

I have very good evidence that this plant does not require acid soil. My plant has been thriving for 4 years--in highly alkaline soil.
I like this plant because the flowers are gorgeous. They emerge on a spike in the spring, and continue to bloom for many weeks.

Although very attractive, I have found this plant to be incredibly invasive in my area. I took out several this spring and by fall I had five new ones in completely different areas. Don't know how they got there as we were very careful with disposal of the old ones.

I am in western NY state so my plant that was grown from seed is growing in a container. Here at Dave's Garden it is rated hardy to zone 6b but every other place I have checked says zone 8. I don't want to take a chance on losing it. If I am able to start another from seed I may just give it a shot in a very protected area of my garden in ground. Mine is just about a year old now from the day the seed germinated but it hasn't bloomed yet. I am looking forward to seeing those blooms and I am sure my hummers will be all over it.

The coral bean can also be propagated by cuttings also although the cuttings seem to require a lot of regular water in order to keep the new tiny leaves from drying out before they get any size.

Very eye-catching plant when it's full of blooms and equally interesting when the pods start to pop open and you can see the red beans.

The hummingbirds love nectaring from this plant.

This plant grows in a wild population here, and it's spectacular to see a big mound in bloom! The I-69 Corridor is coming right through where I took my photos, so I'm going to see if I can't relocate them to a place on my property. I just can't see letting them be destroyed!

When I saw the beautiful flowers of this plant growing under the most inhospitable conditions, I knew it was meant for me. I harvested beans from a seed pod in the fall and planted them in the spring. My husband was not thrilled when he saw the thorny plant growing, but he's changed his opinion of the plant since seeing the lovely red tubular flowers. Hummingbirds are thrilled, too.

Saw one of these for the first time in Pasadena California this week and it was in full flower and barely and leaves... in July. And the flowers were a shocking pink! Anyone seen this as a pink plant before?

The coral bean is a beautiful Texas Native plant, that brings gorgeous color to the spring garden. The flowers are so bright that they seem to glow. Mine dies back to the ground and comes back every year. The woody root is very large, I found this out when I transplanted it two years ago.

I have been growing this plant since 1998, when I harvested some seed from a plant that had been in my parent's back yard in South Georgia for many years.

My book on Florida's native plants says this plant is highly variable, and that some strains are attacked by the erythrina stem borer and leaf miners. It also says that the plant has "greatly enlarged woody roots" and can survive both insects and drought by using the reserves stored in these roots.

My one plant that survived the past two moves is spectacularly beautiful, with large three-part, deep green leaves, and huge red flowers. It grows to about five feet tall every year, but has frozen to the ground the past two years in Northcentral Florida, zone 8b, only to re-emerge larger and stronger the next Spring.

I found this plant growing wild in a Texas coastal area. There was a lot of it, and stated above is that it requires very acidic soil to thrive. The soil where I found this is very alkaline. So, it must be adaptable to different conditions.

This plant is a hummingbird attractant. Blooms form on old wood--pruning will reduce the blooms. The plant can grow to 24 feet in height in the southernmost parts of its range. Frost and salt spray limit its height along the coastal and more northern parts of its range. The bean pods containing the seeds can be harvested to prevent ingestion by inquisitive pets and children. The seeds are highly toxic. This plant has many thorns so be careful when working around it.

This plant has been great for me. It is very drought tolerant, and is a source for spectacular early season color. It surprised me this year. Bloom spikes were emerging, when a severe freeze in spring killed both plants to the ground. However, it came back and bloomed like nothing had happened.

Cherokee bean in endemic to the Southeastern United States. It is a showy plant that does well in part shade and well drained soil although it blooms better in full sun. The blooms are tubular, curving and vivid red on spikes a foot or more in length. It is salt and drought tolerant. Cherokee Bean may die back in very cold weather but new growth will appear in the spring.The bright red seeds are poisonous. Propagation is by cuttings or seeds.