Erythrina ×sykesii Barneby & Krukoff
coral tree
Deciduous tree up to 12-(18) m high; trunks with stout prickles; twigs round, smooth, clothed in short hairs when young but becoming glabrous, armed with prickles; prickles stout-based, scattered, 5-10 mm long. Lvs densely clothed with short medifixed hairs when young, becoming ± glabrous; leaflets broadly ovate to deltoid, ± acuminate, obtuse to truncate at base, entire, (7)-10-20 cm long; lateral leaflets somewhat smaller than terminal; stipules lanceolate, 5-10 mm long, caducous; stipels c. 1 mm long. Infls axillary, clustered at tips of branches, clothed in brown medifixed hairs when young; fls numerous, shortly pedicellate, subtended by caducous bracteoles. Calyx spathe-like, bilabiate, or irregularly shallowly toothed. Standard scarlet, c. 50-60 mm long; wings and keel c. 1/2 length of standard, orange to pale orange; filaments mauve. Pods not formed.
N.: naturalised on roadsides at Te Kao, just south of Parengarenga Harbour, Northland, and Great Barrier Is.
Cultivated hybrid 1986
FL Aug-Oct.
E.× sykesii is a sterile hybrid which probably originated in Australia. Analysis of the nectar sugars indicates that it is a hybrid between an Old World bird-pollinated sp. and a New World hummingbird-pollinated sp. (I. Baker, pers. comm.). The likely parents are E. coralloides Hutch. from S. United States and Mexico and E. lysistemon DC. from southern Africa. E. × sykesii is grown in milder parts of the North Id, especially in Northland, where it is used extensively in soil conservation. It grows readily from cuttings and is therefore likely to become naturalised further from cultivated plants. Several other Erythrina spp. are grown as horticultural plants in North and South Is but are not naturalised. E. × sykesii has been previously known in N.Z. as E. indica.
