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Although native to South America the COCKSPUR CORAL TREE (Erythrina crista-galli), where it is the National Flower of Argentina, it does very well in the Houston area. It is rather rare in Houston, Texas, but the experience of Terry Proctor is that it is one of the hardiest of flowering shrubs and smaller trees.

Several things about this species of Coral Tree are interesting:

1. It tolerates cold weather pretty well. Terry's large Cockspur Coral Tree has frozen back a few times when winters were colder some years back. However, after being frozen to the ground, the tree rebounded to grow into another pretty good sized tree in the next year. Then each following year it got a little larger until it maximized out at about 12 feet tall.
2. The stalks inflorescence) may grow up to two feet and have dozens of gorgeous, intricate red flowers on each stalk.
3. The leaves grow in triple leaflets.Each leaf has a backward hooking thorn on the bottom of the leaf, which can deliver a painful tearing cut should you walk into or fall into the the shrub or small tree.
4. Although they bloom prolifically, i.e. dozens or hundreds of stalks with dozens of flowers on each, Terry has collected only about 25 to 30 beans from the trees over a period of 15 to 20 years. This may be due to the lack of other Cockspur Coral Trees in the area. There are only about 4 or 5 other trees within a 1½ to 2 mile area around Terry's law office. He is propagating more trees to see if this increases the production of seed.
5. Terry's tree stands about 12 feet tall and blooms about 4 to 6 times or more each year. The tree continues to bloom from early spring into almost winter, dropping its leave about December and re-leafing about March or April and flowering not long afterwards.
6. When the tree freezes back, and you later cut down now dead multiple trunks, you can cut through such wood with only a couple of licks with a saw. A trunk which is perhaps six feet long and 4" to 5" diameter will weigh less than a pound. The wood of the Cockspur Coral Tree is almost like Balsa wood. As a result it is easy to break off a growing limb by just jerking on it. So don't plan on putting up any swings on your Cockspur Coral Tree.

You can own one of the
400 signed limited edition eArt prints
of each of these beautiful Cockspur Coral Tree flowers
a/k/a National Flower of Argentina

Click here

These are eArt Scans of real live Cockspur Coral Tree Flowers.
They are not photographs, but the live flowers scanned directly into the
computer by Dr. Proctor using his eArt Scanning technique

For information on Cockspur Coral Trees, see information near the bottom of the page

Now, enjoy these lovely Cockspur Coral Tree blooms

Cockspur Coral Tree and Yellow Chrysanthemums on Blue Background Item # -01	Cockspur Coral Tree and Yellow Chrysanthemums on Gold Background Item # -02	Cockspur Coral Tree and Yellow Chrysanthemums on Brick Background Item # -03
Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms and Yellow Gladiolas on an Orange Background Item # -04	Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms, Yellow Gladiolas, and Elderberry on an Yellow Background Item # -05	Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms on a Blue Background with no backlighting Item # -06
Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms on a Green Background with backlighting Item # -07	Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms and Leaves with Neutral Background Item # -09	Cockspur Coral Tree Blossoms on a Chartreuse Background with backlighting Item # -08
Cockspur Coral Tree, Caladium, Gerber Daisy & Chrysanthemums on Yellow Background Item # -10	Cockspur Coral Tree with Yellow Prickly Pear Cactus Blossoms on Orange Background Item # -11	Cockspur Coral Tree with Yellow Prickly Pear Cactus Blossoms on Yellow Background Item # -12
Cockspur Coral Tree in bloom, after a heavy rain has knocked many blossoms onto the driveway	A solitary stalk of Cockspur Coral Tree on gray Background which is not Backlighted Item # -11	Cockspur Coral Tree blossoms, after a heavy rain has knocked many of the blossoms onto the driveway

Cockspur Coral Trees grow in many parts of the World, although originally coming from South America, they are one of the hardiest of plants. In addition to Southern Texas, Cockspur Coral Trees may be found growing in Northern California, Oregon, deserts of Arizona and Southern California, New Orleans, Louisiana and many other places in the United States.

The blossoms of the Cockspur Coral Tree, as you can see above, has tints of salmon at the base and inside and bright scarlet red to deep red toward the tips.

Terry says that this is the hardiest flower he has on his law office property. Terry hopes to have many more Cockspur Coral Trees growing in Houston in years to come.