Erythrina zeyheri small leaves and tall flower stalks

Erythrina zeyheri flowers are produced in terminal racemes of bright scarlet, slightly orange or dark red colour variations. The calyx is a red, five-lobed tube from which the petals emerge to dominate as they mature. The prominent standard petal is folded along its length and envelopes the other petals. The trifoliolate leaves are usually conspicuously large, the three leaflets often having sharp prickles along the biggest leaf veins. The seed pod contains a few hard orange-coloured seeds.

The robust annual growth of the shrublet that meets the eye is made possible by the ample nutritious resources prepared before the annual spring growth in the underground suffrutex. Parts of this structure used to be prepared in some fashion for being smoked by asthma sufferers in the past.

Unlike this specimen that invested much in the flower growth and less in the leaves, others growing close by in the same colony had small flowers and lush leaves, almost obscuring the flowers (www.plantzafrica.com).