Erythrina melanacantha Taub. ex Harms

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Ecology

Africa: Somalia-Masai bushland and thicket

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Tree

Leguminosae, J. B. Gillett, R. M. Polhill & B. Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1971

Morphology General Habit

Tree with much-branched spreading crown, 6–20 m. tall, with large corky-bosses bearing curved prickles on old branches; usually flowering when leafless.

Morphology Stem

Stems grey or yellow-brown, wrinkled, roughened by leaf- and peduncle-scars, with strong curved black prickles, soon glabrous.

Morphology Leaves

Leaflets rounded-obovate, rhomboid or broadly elliptic, 2–9 cm. long, 1·5–12 cm. wide, broadly rounded or slightly emarginate at the apex, sinuately cuneate at the base or truncate, finely, often ± persistently, stellate tomentose beneath; midrib with or without prickles; petiole 3·5–15 cm. long, with small scattered prickles; rhachis 1·5–6 cm. long; petiolules 2·5–7 mm. long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences covered with a deciduous velvety ferruginous stellate tomentum; rhachis 8–25 cm. long; peduncle 7–20 cm. long; pedicels 4–9 mm. long, soon glabrescent; bracts 3 mm. long, 1 mm. wide and bracteoles 1 mm. long and wide, very deciduous.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx subcylindric, obscurely minutely lobulate at the apex, later splitting on the vexillar side to form a spathe, 1·7–2·5 cm. long, at first velvety tomentose but later with very fine whitish or ferruginous stellate hairs.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Standard brick-red or vermilion-scarlet, very short-clawed, elliptic, 5–7·5 cm. long, 1·8–3·3 cm. wide, narrowly rounded; keel and wings brownish-salmon, ± equal, a quarter to a third the length of the standard.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pods shortly stipitate, oblong, strongly curved, compressed, 13–30 cm. long, 1·8–2·3 cm. wide, (2–)6–11-seeded, not constricted between the seeds, densely velvety stellate tomentose when very young, soon becoming glabrous; valves completely separating, obscurely wrinkled; upper suture 2–3 times as wide as the lower suture.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds bright sulphur yellow, with small black patch at one end of the hilum, or dull reddish, oblong-ellipsoid, longest dimension 1·5–1·6 cm., shorter dimension 9–10 mm., 7–8 mm. thick; hilum elliptic, 3 mm. long.

Habitat

Acacia, Commiphora bushland and semi-desert grassland with Acacia; 300–1500 m.

Distribution

K1 K4 K7 T2 T3

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident