10 Seeds Coral Bean Erythrina Herbacea The Coral Bean is also known as the Cherokee Bean and the Cardinal Spear. The Coral Bean is considered one of the most outstanding native American landscape plants by some plant botanists in the Southern U.S. The Coral Bean, Erythrina herbacea, produces scarlet-red 3-5 feet flowers in cone shaped clusters that rise on rust colored stems that rapidly lengthen before the foliage appears. The red flower of the Coral Bean is brilliant in color and the two inch tubular flowers attract swarms of hummingbird and butterfly feeders towards the sweet nectar. The triangular shaped inflorescence can last 45 days and the individual flowers at the bottom of the flower drop off as they are pollinated, leaving a fresh appearance brilliantly red. Several flower stalks can arise from the central bulb (rhizome) at once or periodically. The flowers of the Coral Bean, after being pollinated by a hummingbird or butterfly will develop into a bean pod that opens later in the Summer attached to the stem of the Cherokee Bean plant with a display of shiny red beans that are often taken indoors to use for Winter, dried flower displays. Cherokee tribe superstitions related to the arrowhead, weapon-shape of the Cherokee Bean leaf; and the spear shape of the flower in florescence may have let the Cherokee tribe use as a healing medicinal agent. The Cherokee Bean bulb (rhizome) can grow into a large woody mass and the root is quite difficult to dig up from the woodlands to plant in a home garden, but the bulb shows very little transplant shock and is a choice garden treasure, whether recovered from the wild or purchased from a mail order nursery. The Coral Bean is very adaptable to most soil types and light conditions. If any plant could be said to show a trait of determination to survive the harshness tribulations of environmental stress, certainly the Coral Bean could be considered to be a proven survival champion. In South Florida the Coral Bean can grow into a small tree, where it is unaffected by the no frost zone of the deep South, but further North the frost would put it into dormancy. Growing Instructions 1. Scarify the seeds by nicking or sanding the seed coat. 2. Soak the seeds in water for several hours. 3. Put a mixture of potting soil and sand or perlite into a pot with drainage holes in the base. The soil should be moist and well-drained. 4. Sow the seeds on the soil. 5. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil. 6. Water the seeds. Keep the soil moist but not wet. 7. When the plants are a few inches tall, they can be transplanted.