Species
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Erythrina caffra Stef Wolmar, CC BY-SA, via GBIF · observed growing wild

Erythrina caffra Thunb.

Cape Kaffirboom, Cape coraltree, Kaffirboom, South African coral tree

No habitat climate 24 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 afra, the coast coral tree or African coral tree, is a tree native to southeastern Africa, which is often cultivated and has introduced populations in California and India. All the 17 species of coral tree in the genus Erythrina are collectively considered the official tree of Los Angeles, California in the United States.

Text from Wikipedia, “Erythrina afra”, 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
Thunb.
Native to
not verified
Wild records
304 in range· 254 open

Also known as Chirocalyx pubescens Walp.; Corallodendron caffrum (Thunb.) Kuntze; Duchassaingia caffra (Thunb.) Walp.; Erythrina constantiana Micheli; Erythrina fissa C.Presl and 2 more.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species, and the archetype table has no figure for its genus or family.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Native range not verified: no WCVP distribution with native status for this name, so records cannot be told from cultivation and no habitat climate is derived.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNot verified.Reported present (native status not stated): Africa, North America, Global· introduced: ?, Taiwan
Evidence usedNo verified native range for this name: WCVP has no entry with native status, and a checklist that only reports presence cannot tell a wild record from a garden one. The map shows 254 openly licensed records of 304 untested against any range; no map marker or climate is derived from them, and no sheet is built from them. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.

Photographs

Erythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffraErythrina caffra

Photographs: Ron K, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Maarten Vanhove, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (3); unknown, CC BY, via GBIF (3).

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

Kunitz-type soybean trypsin inhibitor revisited: refined structure of its complex with porcine trypsin reveals an insight into the interaction between a homologous inhibitor from Erythrina caffra and tissue-type plasminogen activator
Hyun Kyu Song, Se Won Suh (1998) · Journal of Molecular Biology
Expression of Active Human Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator inEscherichia coli
Ji Qiu, James R. Swartz, George Georgiou (1998) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Antibacterial activity of flavonoids from the stem bark of Erythrina caffra thunb.
J.C. Chukwujekwu, Fanie R. van Heerden, J. Van Staden (2010) · Phytotherapy Research
The three‐dimensional structure of the bifunctional proteinase k/α‐amylase inhibitor from wheat (PKI3) at 2.5 Å resolution
Klaus J. Zemke, Anke Müller‐Fahrnow, Klaus‐Dieter Jany, Gour P. Pal (1991) · FEBS Letters
In VitroAntibacterial and Time-Kill Evaluation of theErythrina caffraThunb. Extract against Bacteria Associated with Diarrhoea
Olufunmiso Olusola Olajuyigbe, Anthony Jide Afolayan (2012) · The Scientific World JOURNAL
The primary structure of inhibitor of cysteine proteinases from potato
Igor Križaj, M. Drobnič‐Košorok, Jože Brzin, Roman Jerala (1993) · FEBS Letters
Anoxic Seed Germination ofErythrina caffra: Ethanol Fermentation and Response to Metabolic Inhibitors
J.G.C. Small, G.P. Potgieter, Frederik C. Botha (1989) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Carbohydrate composition during seed development and germination in two sub-tropical rainforest tree species (Erythrina caffra and Guilfoylia monostylis)
Ani Nkang (2002) · Journal of Plant Physiology
Erythrina caffra Trypsin Inhibitor Retains Its Native Structure and Function After Reducing Its Disulfide Bonds
Karla Lehle, Alex Wrba, Rainer Jaenicke (1994) · Journal of Molecular Biology
Chemical composition, antioxidant activities and antibacterial activities of essential oil from Erythrina caffra Thunb. growing in South Africa
Olubunmi Abosede Wintola, Aderonke Ariyike Olajuyigbe, Anthony Jide Afolayan, Roger M. Coopoosamy (2021) · Heliyon
Effect of disulfide bonds on the structure, function, and stability of the trypsin/tPA inhibitor from Erythrina caffra: Site-directed mutagenesis, expression, and physiochemical characterization
Karla Lehle, Ulrich Kohnert, Anne Stern, F. A. Popp (1996) · Nature Biotechnology
Purification and properties of the proteinase inhibitors from Erythrina caffra (coast erythrina) seed
François J. Joubert (1982) · International Journal of Biochemistry

Other Erythrina 6 in the reference

Erythrina americana American Coral Tree Erythrina crista-galli Brazilian Coral Tree Erythrina herbacea Cherokee Bean Erythrina lysistemon Common Coral Tree Erythrina speciosa Coral tree Erythrina variegata India coralbean

History & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answered
gbif.synonyms answered
gbif.vernacular answered
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate nothing to report
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 43 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.