INFORMATION ABOUT NATURE: CORAL TREES (WEEK 3)

Hi. I am Aarish and today our lesson is about Coral trees , also known as Erythrina.

Erythrina is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to 30 m (98 ft) in height. These species are known for their large flowers with long and bright red or orange petals.

Particularly in horticulture, the name coral tree is used as a collective term for these plants. Flame tree is another vernacular name, but may refer to a number of unrelated plants as well. Many species of Erythrina have bright red flowers, and this may be the origin of the common name. However, the growth of the branches can resemble the shape of sea coral.

The cultivation of fruits , flowers and vegetables is called horticulture .  

Many birds visit the nectar-rich Erythrina flowers. In the Neotropics, these are usually larger hummingbirds, for example the swallow-tailed hummingbird (Eupetomena macroura) and the black-throated (Anthracothorax nigricollis) and green-breasted mangos (A. prevostii).  

Bird sucking nectar

Coral trees in Parks and gardens 

The Neotropics is a biogeographic realm that includes Central and South America, and the Caribbean. It's known for its high biodiversity of plants, animals, and microscopic species. 

Some coral trees are used widely in the tropics and subtropics as street and park trees, especially in drier areas. In some places, such as Venezuela, bucarés are used as shade trees for coffee or cocoa crops.

Bucarés is a Spanish word that refers to a type of coral tree.

Native Hawaiians made a number of items from wiliwili wood because of its low density, such as mouo (fishing net floats), ama (outrigger canoe floats, and extremely long papa heʻe nalu (surfboards) called olo. Olo, which averaged 18 feet (5.5 m), were exclusively ridden by aliʻi (royalty). The wood was sometimes used for the waʻa (hull) of outrigger canoes intended to be used near-shore, for recreation, or for training. The shiny orange-red seeds were strung into lei.

The conspicuous, even dramatic coral trees are widely used as floral emblems. cockspur coral tree (E. crista-galli) is the national flower of Argentina and Uruguay. The coastal coral tree (E. afra) is the official city tree of Los Angeles, California, where it is referred to simply as the "coral tree". The state trees of Mérida and Trujillo in Venezuela are bucaré ceibo (E. poeppigiana) and purple coral tree (bucaré anauco, E. fusca), respectively. Yonabaru, Okinawa as well as the Okinawa Prefecture, Quanzhou, Fujian Province and Pathum Thani Province have the Indian coral tree (E. variegata) as floral emblems. Known as thong lang in Thailand, the latter species is also one of the thong ("trees") referred to in the name of Amphoe Chom Thong, Chiang Mai Province. In a similar vein, Zumpahuacán in Mexico derives its name from Nahuatl tzompahuacá, "place of the Erythrina americana".

Growing, selling or possessing Erythrina spp. except for ornamental purposes, is prohibited by Louisiana State Act 159 (where the genus is misspelled Erythina); the Act covers various known, suspected, or rumored hallucinogenic plants.

Substance that causes hallucinations (= the experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling something that does not exist) is called hallucinogenic.

Coral trees can be rare due to a number of factors, including deforestation, habitat loss, and the introduction of invasive species.

Deforestation -

• The original forest where the coral tree was collected may have been destroyed by a cashew nut plantation.
• A Dutch company may have cleared the woodland to create a biofuel plantation.

Many efforts are being made to save the different species of this particular rare plant. Can you suggest some ways to solve this problem? Please tell below 👇

We can plant a garden with trees, flowers, and shrubs

Yes we can, but this plant is very, very rare and it's hard to find the seeds of it.

eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmm

i have no idea -_-