Erythrina acanthocarpa flowers

The name of Erythrina acanthocarpa is formed from the Greek words erythros (red), akanthos (thorn) and karpos (fruit). The pods borne after flowering have thorns or spines on the outside surface, that discourage browsers and hooligans.

Many Erythrina flowers are red. What about those species that don’t have red flowers? They have to bear with the name, as structure plays a bigger role in the classification of plants into species, genera and families than colour.

In the sciences of living things, the biological sciences, like in grammar (languages also being living things), “the exceptions prove the rules”. As we are taught by those exasperating teachers whose words we accepted so grudgingly but remember so long afterwards (www.plantzafrica.com).