Family: Fabaceae

Deciduous shrub usually growing to about 4’ high and wide in our region. This is actually a tropical tree—our region used to be tropical before the last ice age, and when the tropics receded, a few tropical remnants adapted to the colder and drier times. In the SW USA this plant is found in rocky foothills and hillsides, and gets frozen back every few years, finding refuge in the deep cracks of those places. If it doesn’t freeze it can get about 15’ high in our region (usually about the size of a house where it is protected). In Sonora it reaches over 30’ high. This plant has a long dormancy, and leafs out in late spring. It flowers before leaves emerge with gorgeous red, tubular flowers, provided the previous monsoon contributed sufficient rain. The flowers are followed by large pods that reveal bright red to tan seeds.

Plants take full to part sun, moderate to low water with good drainage, and has a frost tolerance that depends on the location—if the roots and/or lower trunk is protected, they can take temps between 15-20 °F, though some stem damage may occur.

Hummingbirds depend on this flower during the spring. This plant is a larval host for various Pyralid and Crambid moths.

The seeds are used to make beads, but have alkaloids in them that can make you sick if you ingest them.

Photo by Eric Hough, iNaturalist
Erythrina flabelliformis on SEINET