Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_erythrina_variegata
Indian Coral Tree
Erythrina variegata
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About Indian Coral Tree
Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina variegata) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to the tropical Old World from East Africa through southern Asia and the Pacific in wet-tropical and coastal vegetation. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting in 1937, 1940; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence. The 1918–1959 Kauaʻi reforestation working register records 197 plants under Erythrina variegata across 2 entries dated 1937–1940. These are recorded planting quantities, not counts of surviving trees, and they do not by themselves establish current persistence, naturalization, or ecological impact. A transcription error in the planting year was corrected against Skolmen (1980); the original value remains in the research register. Source: Kauaʻi Reforestation Plantings 1918–1959 working register (user-supplied; reconciled 6 October 2026).
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Erythrina variegata
- Common names
- Indian Coral Tree · Tiger's-claw
- Other names
- Erythrina variegata · Indian coral tree · Tiger's-claw
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current survival on Kauaʻi, number of trees, occupied habitat, flowering or fruiting, recruitment, population trend, and ecological effects are all unconfirmed; no naturalization or invasive severity is inferred from the historical planting record.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Scarlet papilionoid flowers require animal pollination and mature into narrow dark pods constricted between hard seeds. Kauaʻi pollinators, fruit set, seed dispersal, viability and recruitment remain unconfirmed.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Deciduous tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina variegata) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to the tropical Old World from East Africa through southern Asia and the Pacific in wet-tropical and coastal vegetation. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting in 1937, 1940; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.