Weed profile: Cockspur coral tree
Cockspur coral tree
Erythrina crista-galliCockspur coral tree is a deciduous shrub or tree to 10 m high, originating from northern Argentina, eastern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. In Australia it has been cultivated as an ornamental plant but has become invasive along waterways in coastal areas of New South Wales from Sydney to the Queensland border.
Cockspur coral tree flowers from spring to early autumn and has showy racemes of scarlet flowers (twenty to forty flowers on a raceme 8-30 cm long) often occurring in clusters of 3. Cockspur coral trees have cone-shaped prickles on the trunks, branches and stems. Leaves are made up of three leaflets 3-6 cm long and 2-5 cm wide. Sickle-shaped seed pods 8-22 cm long contain 3-12 brown to black seeds.
Infestations become more obvious during flowering, and lose their leaves completely over winter. This plant is potentially a major weed of waterways and floodplain areas.
Status
- Declared in NSW under the Noxious Weeds Act 1993 (view details)