Erythrina caffra
| Coast Coral Tree (Eng) |
Kuskoraalboom (Afr) |
Umsintsi (Xhosa) |
Umsinsi (Zulu) |
About the Tree
The South African List of Trees : #242
The Erythrina species was honoured in 1982 as the Tree of the Year.
Coral trees have red to dark orange flowers. They are easy to grow and as such are a fairly popular tree amongst horticulturists.
The Coast Coral Tree is a medium to large deciduous tree. They grow in coastal bush and riverine forests. The stem and branches have thorns while the leaflets and leaf-stalks do not.
The flower consists of one main petal which curves backwards to reveal the stamens and 4 minor petals at its base. Flowers appear late winter to early spring before the leaves appear.
Their seeds are bright red with a dark patch where the seed was attached to the pod. The pods are deeply constricted and tend to be between 50mm – 60mm in length.
It differs from the Common Coral Tree (Erythrina lysistemon), which is slightly smaller tree, because its main petal curves back to expose the stamens. It's leaflets are also broader. All Coral tree leaves are made up of 3 leaflets.
About Arbor Week and its History
Because this cache is placed during National Arbor Week, which is held between Sept 1 - 7 every year, here is the story behind Arbor day / week:
Arbor Day originated in Nebraksa in the United States of America in the 1870s. The pioneers missed the forests from their homelands, and on 4 January 1872, J.Sterling Morton, a journalist, proposed a tree-planting holiday to be called "Arbor Day" at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture. The date was set for 10 April 1872. It was estimated that more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day.
During the 1870s, other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day.
Arbor Day has now spread beyond the United States and many countries observe the day.
Historically, South Africa has not had a culture of tree planting and it was not until the 1970s that a real need to promote tree planting was recognised. The concept of a National Arbor Day ensued from 1973 Green Heritage Campaign. Following requests from various bodies, the then Department of Forestry obtained approval in 1982 to establish National Arbor Day that has been in place countrywide since 1983.
In 1996, the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry extended Arbor Day from one day to one week.
This excerpt is from http://www.gov.za/events/view.php?sid=41660.
About the Cache
This cache is a small pill container. BYOP to sign the log. Please note that you should not need to break anything getting to this cache. Please, as always, treat the tree with the respect it deserves.
Thanks to Mike from CompanyH for assisting in the placing of the cache.
The cache has some lucky beans (Coastal Coral tree seeds) in it. Why not take one and grow a tree in your garden? If the 'stocks' are low please feel free to add a few more. Please let me know if any of the seeds decide it is time to germinate. 