Erythrina americana

Erythrina americana (coral tree, colorines, colorín, or pemoches), is a flowering plant of the genus Erythrina which is native to Mexico. Colorín (plural colorines) is the name of a type of tree, Erythrina americana also called Tzompāmitl. The word colorín means color chillón—a “gaudy” or “loud” color (Williams 1959). Colorines plant also called, cuchillitos (little knives) or machetitos (little machetes), zompantle, or coral is a nice flower, red in color and every individual flower resembles a little machete, the flower is edible and is boiled (only the red part of the flower) and cooked with scrambled eggs or tuna in many parts of south Mexico. This variety flowers during the dry season (April) in many parts, and the plant is very popular with hummingbirds because of the bright red color, the plant ranges from a few feet off the ground to trees five meters tall. The earliest depiction of this tree in America is in the Florentine Codex. In the 17th century, Francisco Hernández com......read more on Wikipedia.