The tag says Kaffir.
it is about 2 feet tall right now..and was told it has pink flowers?
What is this?-pic of leaves
it was windy today..the leaves won't stay still long enough for me..
Hi Moodene,
it looks just like coral bean or Erythrina.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56753/
was told that but not sure of what kind it is...but with pink flowers...most of them are red...
E.herbaceae has pink flowers.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2724/
I have that one but the leaves are different....
take a look at this page. If yours is E.amazonicus..it is very pretty.
http://www.toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi
Amazon coral tree..wow..might get another one....
Erythrina fusca has the common name Kaffirboom coral tree, could that be it? There's not a good closeup of the leaves in Plant Files unfortunately. It has orange flowers though rather than pink http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/63921/
I am also coming up with E.caffra as a name for Kaffir coraltree. Whenever the description says pink, the flowers look like orange to me. Moodene--if it turns out to be the pink amazon one, think of me whenever it blooms. I have tried the red one (very beautiful) in my yard but paloverde grubs got it.
I'm thinking it's Erythrinia indicia.
I know Jerry and Zone9 has these floating around. One floated into my garden...:)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54478/
Rj
Hi folks,
Its an Erythrina of some sort, but a word on South African plant names is needed. Koralboom or coral tree is the preferred common name, anything bearing the name K*f*r should not be used, as it is an old SA racial slur, equivilent to the "n" slur here in the USA. Hence clivias are preferably called "forest lilies" (boslelie) not k*lilies these days as well. Old SA plant books sometimes have the racially offensive version for a common name, but they stopped using any common names with the k word in botanical/horticultural literature well before majority rule came to SA. Some nurseries here in the US still use the offensive versions, not knowing, of course, their meaning, but slowly things are changing here too.
In any case coral trees do have the most wonderful flowers, and among several tree species there is actually a herbaceous perennial version in SA, Erythrina zeyheri, sometimes called the plough breaker on account of its enormous tuberous root. I remember seeing them on my last visit to SA in the early 90's near the northern Natal border, they looked like great red lupines sticking out of the grasslands.
You completely lost me on that one!
Very interesting congminglaoshi! I would have never known that the word was offensive. Gorgeous plant, too.
Well sorry to use that word but that is what was written on the tag. There were several kinds of these Erythrina plants at Jerry's and this one baffled me the most..so I am going to gow it out and see what the blooms look like myself..
thank you congminglaoshi for letting us know. I was not aware either. I also say kaffir lime. It is asian but should I be using a different word?
oh, I had to go back up through the thread to piece that together.
I had no idea either.
Hi folks,
Lovetropics, you raise an interesting question. The k* lime is not a South African plant, so it would be interesting to know how it got that common name. As for a substitute, I'll defer to wikipedia which says that the name makrut lime is preferred in an addendum to their original entry on the k* lime. I do not know what South Africans call this plant.
Moodene, you were only reporting what you saw, no harm done, most nursery owners don't know what it means anyway. The only time I could imagine a significant problem or embarrassing situation is if one was a tourist in South Africa and a conversation about the plants referred to took place. I hope you get some nice blooms on it, and that it turns out to be a real beauty!
I have a friend from S. Africa..I can ask him