Erythrina herbacea L.
Cherokee Bean, Cherokee-bean, Coral Bean, Eastern Coral Bean
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Erythrina herbacea, commonly known as the Eastern Coralbean, Cherokee Bean, Mamou in South Louisiana, Red Cardinal, or Cardinal Spear is a flowering shrub or small tree found throughout the southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico; it has also been reported from parts of Central America and, as an introduced species, from Pakistan. Various other systematic names have been used for this plant in the past, including Erythrina arborea, Erythrina hederifolia, Erythrina humilis, Erythrina rubicunda, Corallodendron herbaceum and Xyphanthus hederifolius.
Text from Wikipedia, “Erythrina herbacea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · 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. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Erythrina”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Corallodendron herbaceum (L.) Kuntze; Erythrina arborea Small; Erythrina hederaefolia Spreng.; Erythrina hederifolia (Raf.) Spreng.; Erythrina herbacea f. albiflora Moffler & Crewz and 4 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (944 mm of 1324 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 1324 mm a year, wettest August at 177 mm, driest November at 69 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1324 mm a year at the habitat, 944 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month August at 177 mm, driest November at 69 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1104 mm to 1562 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 41 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 3.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.2 °C, the absolute minimum -4.3 °C, 35 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.7 °C to 14.8 °C), warmest day 31.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 14–22 | 19 / 16–23 | 22 / 19–25 | 26 / 23–27 | 29 / 26–30 | 31 / 29–32 | 32 / 30–34 | 31 / 29–34 | 30 / 28–31 | 26 / 24–28 | 22 / 20–26 | 18 / 16–23 |
| Night °C | 9 / 6–15 | 11 / 7–16 | 13 / 10–17 | 16 / 14–20 | 20 / 18–23 | 23 / 22–25 | 24 / 23–26 | 24 / 23–26 | 23 / 21–25 | 19 / 16–22 | 14 / 11–19 | 11 / 7–16 |
| Rain mm | 84 / 47–125 | 81 / 56–133 | 101 / 64–145 | 74 / 58–106 | 86 / 63–127 | 164 / 115–213 | 159 / 82–208 | 177 / 75–221 | 152 / 97–203 | 105 / 75–139 | 69 / 49–126 | 72 / 45–134 |
| DLI | 20 / 18–23 | 25 / 22–28 | 32 / 28–34 | 39 / 35–41 | 41 / 38–42 | 39 / 38–41 | 39 / 37–41 | 36 / 34–39 | 32 / 30–33 | 27 / 26–29 | 22 / 20–24 | 18 / 16–21 |
| RH % | 58 / 58–60 | 59 / 57–60 | 58 / 57–60 | 58 / 56–60 | 60 / 57–62 | 62 / 60–64 | 63 / 60–65 | 63 / 59–65 | 62 / 58–64 | 60 / 58–61 | 59 / 58–60 | 59 / 58–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 899 grid cells holding the 1515 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1207:1708 (29.625, -94.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 899 distinct grid cells holding the 1515 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1207:1708 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.50_-94.375, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) johnyochum, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jay Horn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Laura Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Craig Hensley, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Erythrina herbacea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Mimosa strigillosa powder puff
Nolina atopocarpa Florida Bear-Grass
Yucca aloifolia Aloe Yucca
Nymphaea mexicana Mexican water-lily
Pinguicula caerulea blue butterwort
Drosera capillaris Pink sundew, Spathulate-leaved sundewOther Erythrina 6 in the reference
Erythrina americana American Coral Tree
Erythrina crista-galli Brazilian Coral Tree
Erythrina lysistemon Common Coral Tree
Erythrina speciosa Coral tree
Erythrina variegata India coralbean History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 47 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








