Erythrina glauca Willd.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Fabaceae

• Scientific Name

  Erythrina glauca Willd.

• Description

  Species Description - We have found no English popular name in use for this tree, planted along roads in the northern part of Porto Rico, and locally spontaneous from seed, occasionally seen also along the rivers; the species is probably not indigenous here, although Dr. Stahl was inclined to believe otherwise in 1885, when he recorded it as sometimes found as isolated trees in forests, occurrences which have not come under our observation. It inhabits Cuba, the Lesser Antilles from Guadeloupe to Trinidad, and on the continent from Honduras to Panama and French Guiana; in which parts of this range of distribution it is native, and in which introduced by planting, is not accurately known. The tree has widely spreading branches, rather dense foliage, and is desirable for shade, but the flowers, borne among the leaves, are less elegant than those of its relative Bucare, (Erythrina Poeppigiana) , also illustrated in this work. An account of the genus may be found with our description of Erythrina Corallodendrum. Erythrina glauca (pale, or bluish-gray, referring to the under surface of the leaves) may reach a height of about 20 meters; the trunk and branches are armed with prickles, at least when young, the large leaves are stalked, and have 3, broad, smooth, ovate or elliptic leaflets from 6 to 12 centimeters long, pale beneath, mostly blunt or rounded, firm in texture. The finely hairy flower-clusters are from 10 to 20 centimeters long, the individual flowers on thick stalks, about 1 centimeter long; the broadly bell-shaped calyx. is from 1 to 2 centimeter long and somewhat oblique; the orange standard petal is broadly rhombic, folded, 5 or 6 centimeters long; the oblong wing-petals are about 2.5 centimeters long, brown, with crimson tips; the keel-petals are united, brown, somewhat longer than the wings; the stamens and the style are much longer than the keel. The flattened pod is 25 centimeters long, or shorter, about 1.5 centimeters wide, the oblong, reddish-brown seeds 1.5 to 1.8 centimeters long.

• Discussion

  Bucago Pea Family Erythrina glauca Willdenow, Neue Schrifte der Gesellschaft Naturforschende Freunde Berlin 3: 428.1801.