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Erythrina lanata (Batuucha) - A arborescent shrub or small tree with interesting rough reddish orange and green colored bark, spiney branches, mid green trifoliate discolorous leaves (paler below) and tight clusters of narrow tubular pink flowers.
This plant has not been documented as being cultivated in California but we feel it would do best in full sun in a well-draining soil with occasional to infrequent irrigation. Hardiness is unknown but our plants in containers were not damaged by short duration winter temperatures down to 31° F.
The native range of this species is in the seasonally dry tropical biome of Central & Southwest Mexico. The name for the genus is from the Greek word 'erythros' meaning "red". The specific epithet is from the Latin word 'lanatus' for 'woolly' in reference to the plants lightly tomentose leaves and flowers. The type specimen for the species was collected by American botanist Dr. Edward Palmer near Acapulco, Guerrero between October 1894 and March 1895 and described by the botanist and Smithsonian curator Joseph Nelson Rose in North American Fauna in 1899 but another collection was made in Oaxaca. In a 1955 edition of the USDA plant inventory (N. 156) there is reference to a 1948 Plant Introduction, Horticultural Crops Research Branch, Agricultural Research Service collection of this species (No. 16416) by J.O. Ware and C.W. Manning in the state of Oaxaca 70 miles southeast of Oaxaca city. This unit prior to 1954 was known as the Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry. There is no indication however that this species made it into cultivation at that time. The common name Batuucha is the Zapoteco name for this plant.
Our plants grown from seed collected in 2016 at what has been affectionately called Thomas McDougall's Rock Garden at Nizanda, Oaxaca. We released our original stock plants of this species for sale in 2024.
This information about Erythrina lanata displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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