Erythrina

The trunk, young branches, petioles and petiolules are often armed with blunt, conical thorns or recurved prickles. Leaves are pinnately trifoliate, with small stipules, often clustered at the ends of branches. Leaflets are entire, usually stalked, broad-ovate, elliptic, often deltoid or rhomboid, bearing fleshy stipels. Inflorescence is axillary or terminal, raceme-like, bearing 2 or more conspicuous flowers. Corolla is often red or orange, usually longer than calyx. Petals are extremely unequal; standard is large, rounded or oblong, erect or spreading, often folded longitudinally; wings short, sometimes absent; keels much shorter than standard. Stamens are diadelphous (1 free and the rest united). Ovary is stipitate (borne on a stalk). Style is inflexed; stigma small, terminal. Fruit is a legume, mostly linear-oblong, often curved, dehiscent, rarely indehiscent, mostly leathery or woody, often constricted between seeds. Seeds are 1-14, ovoid, white, gray, or brown, rarely red with dark spots.