Wow! That's awesome! Where do you live? My plain erythrina hasn't recovered from winter yet... still winter up here in Sacramento...

WOW! All I can say is WOW! Gorgeous. I have an Erythina that has also never bloomed. Last year the deer ate the tips off all the stems. Hopefully this year....so far they are leaving it all alone. I am going to have to look for that plant!

Be....U....T....ful

Ron, what's the story on this plant? Is it a chimera?

That's very cool!

Hi Lisa,

I'm not sure about it being a chimaera (milti-headed?). Most everything about this plant is typical Erythrina coralloides, except for the white blooms. Obviously it's a sport of some kind. The red blossoms still predominate, but the white ones are frequent enough to make it stand out. Personally, I think it is one of the better looking coral trees. The white just makes it stand out even more so.

By the way, last year I won a bid on eBay on some Erythrina sandwicensis seeds, the white variety. I think I got about a dozen seeds. I sent half to Marcelo and just about all the rest germinated. Two of the baby seedlings survived the winter on my balcony just fine.

-Ron-

I hope you and Marcelo can keep those E. sandwicensis seedlings alive, Ron. It's not the showiest flower, but all of our erythrinas are now threatened by the recent invasion of the gall wasp, so the only way to save the native species may be to have people outside of Hawaii grow them. It's really sad. All of the Windbreak Wiliwilis and E. variegatas, the 2 most commonly used varieties, look like somebody took a flamethrower to them. We have a particularly nice pink flowered species at our place that showed a lot of galling at first but seems to be growing out of it now, so maybe there's hope.

If your plant has the occasional white inflorescence in amongst the red ones, it's most likely a sectorial chimera, having patches of 2 genetically distinct tissue types within the same stem. I thought at first maybe the flowers came out one color and changed as they aged, but both inflorescences in your pic look about the same age, and a google search pulled up a couple of other similar photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chimeras

Peter, I've sent you a message through your GW-mail.

-Ron-

I found this link after seeing the plant listed on San Marcos Growers' website - it's strictly a wholesale company, so you'd need some 'in' to purchase from them, but at least they do list it. Here is the link to the plant description and photo: http://www.smgrowers.com/info/erythrinacorb.asp. Best of luck....

Hi Peters5001,

I really want to talk with you, my grandfather is a huge collector of Erythrinas in France. How can we talk in private ?

I'm waiting for your answer.

Thanks

Eva H.

Ron has given up on the posting part of the hobby. Many -me too- miss his San Diego paradise reports.