Common coral tree

Gewone koraalboom · Erythrina lysistemon

One of the first splashes of red in the winter bushveld, flowering while still leafless. Out of flower it is an unremarkable grey tree, so the blooms are your best clue.

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How to identify it

In late winter and early spring look for a bare tree topped with dense heads of brilliant scarlet, beak-shaped flowers before the leaves appear. The bark is grey with scattered small hooked prickles.

Flowers & fruit

Flowers in late winter to early spring (roughly August to September), usually before the leaves.

Browsed by

Sunbirds and other nectar birds feed at the flowers, vervet monkeys eat the buds, kudu, klipspringer, black rhino and baboon browse the leaves, and brown-headed parrots eat the seeds.

Where to see it in Kruger

Scattered in bushveld and on rocky hillsides and koppies, often more common on well-drained slopes.

Did you know

Its bright red-and-black 'lucky bean' seeds are used as charms and jewellery across southern Africa, and the tree was traditionally planted on the graves of Zulu chiefs.

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