Species
+

Erythrina speciosa Andrews

Coral tree

Climate known 62 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 speciosa is a tree native to Brazil, which is often cultivated and has introduced populations in Africa and India. It is pollinated by hummingbirds.

Text from Wikipedia, “Erythrina speciosa”, 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.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Andrews
Native to
Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast +1
Wild records
678 in range· 291 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1624mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 262 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1624 mm a year, wettest January at 262 mm, driest August at 48 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Corallodendron reticulatum (C.Presl) Kuntze; Erythrina poianthes Brot.; Erythrina poianthes Brot. ex Tilloch & Taylor; Erythrina poianthes var. subinermis Lindl.; Erythrina reticulata C.Presl and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

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 (1167 mm of 1624 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to 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 1624 mm a year, wettest January at 262 mm, driest August at 48 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1624 mm a year at the habitat, 1167 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 262 mm, driest August at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1385 mm to 2147 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 8.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.6 °C, the absolute minimum 3.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.1 °C to 17.2 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.6 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 66% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1624 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 392 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°35.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–36RH 62–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 392 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 25–2927 / 26–3027 / 25–2925 / 23–2723 / 21–2622 / 19–2521 / 19–2523 / 20–2624 / 21–2725 / 22–2826 / 23–2826 / 24–29
Night °C20 / 18–2320 / 18–2419 / 17–2317 / 16–2215 / 13–1913 / 11–1812 / 10–1713 / 11–1815 / 13–1917 / 15–2018 / 16–2119 / 17–22
Rain mm262 / 178–346199 / 145–269183 / 133–270108 / 76–17388 / 40–14062 / 19–12055 / 12–12548 / 20–9796 / 57–162140 / 109–182165 / 129–234218 / 154–323
DLI36 / 33–3936 / 33–3932 / 30–3428 / 24–3123 / 19–2722 / 17–2522 / 18–2727 / 22–3129 / 24–3433 / 29–3736 / 33–3936 / 33–40
RH %66 / 63–6966 / 62–6966 / 62–7065 / 61–6864 / 59–6763 / 58–6662 / 56–6662 / 54–6663 / 55–6765 / 58–6965 / 60–6965 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 392 grid cells holding the 644 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 2197:2720 (-19.875, -43.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.4 °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 392 distinct grid cells holding the 644 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2197:2720 (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 -20.00_-43.750, lapse-corrected -160 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 840 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South· introduced: Egypt, Norfolk Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.544, -46.63 · in the densest population, 273 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 678 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 291 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 60 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 34 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 678 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Erythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosaErythrina speciosa

Photographs: (c) bruno_san1409, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) lcsvoj, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Henrique Bitencourt, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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 speciosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Screening of some plants used in the Brazilian folk medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases
Fabíola Holetz, Greisiele Lorena Pessini, Neviton Rogério Sanches, Diógenes Aparı́cio Garcia Cortez (2002) · Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Gastroprotective effects of Erythrina speciosa (Fabaceae) leaves cultivated in Egypt against ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in rats
Nouran M. Fahmy, Eman Al‐Sayed, Haidy E. Michel, Mohamed El‐Shazly (2019) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Isolation, purification, and physicochemical characterization of a d-galactose-binding lectin from seeds of Erythrina speciosa
Emadeldin Hassan E. Konozy, Emerson Soares Bernardes, C. La Rosa, Vítor M. Faça (2003) · Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Erythrina speciosa (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae) under soil water saturation: morphophysiological and growth responses
Camilo Lázaro Medina, Maria Cristina Sanches, Maria Luiza Sant’Anna Tucci, Carlos Antônio Ferreira de Sousa (2009) · Annals of Botany
Reserve carbohydrates and lipids from the seeds of four tropical tree species with different sensitivity to desiccation
Juliana Iura de Oliveira Mello, Cláudio José Barbedo, Antônio Salatino, Rita de Cássia L. Figueiredo-Ribeiro (2010) · Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology
Adsorption of the First-Line Covid Treatment Analgesic onto Activated Carbon from Residual Pods of Erythrina Speciosa
Jordana Georgin, Dison S.P. Franco, Matias S. Netto, Mohammad Saood Manzar (2022) · Environmental Management
Conversion of Erythrina speciosa pods to porous adsorbent for Ibuprofen removal
Dison S.P. Franco, Diana Pinto, Jordana Georgin, Matias S. Netto (2022) · Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Metabolic Changes on the Acquisition of Desiccation Tolerance in Seeds of the Brazilian Native Tree Erythrina speciosa
Aline Forgatti Hell, Fernanda S. Kretzschmar, Kelly Simões, Arnd G. Heyer (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science

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.

Other Erythrina 6 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.