Coral Bean

Size, growth and what to expect

Coral bean grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Where winters freeze its stems back, it stays a shrub of 3 to 6 feet. Where frost spares it, it grows to 12 feet or more and can become a small tree of 20 to 25 feet. It spreads 3 to 6 feet. Each leaf has three arrowhead-shaped leaflets, often prickly beneath, and the leaves fall in winter.

Spikes up to a foot long of scarlet, tubular flowers open from April into July, before the leaves. Each flower is 1.5 to 2 inches long, its upper petal wrapped around the others. Black pods up to 8.5 inches long ripen from July to September, then split to show bright red seeds that cling for months. Its dense, thorny stems shelter small birds and animals.

It grows wild on the coastal plain from southeastern North Carolina to Florida and west to Texas. Its home is open, sandy woods and clearings, thickets, hammocks, sandhills, flatwoods and coastal dunes, mostly on dry ground.

How to grow Coral Bean

Coral bean grows in full sun or part shade, in a well-drained sandy, loamy or clay soil. It takes long dry spells and salt spray, but not salt water over its roots. Set plants 6 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. Keep it back from paths, since the stems carry small thorns. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Wear gloves when you handle the seed, which is poisonous. Scratch or file the hard coat of each seed before you sow it in spring. Store any extra seed sealed and out of children's reach.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in long droughts. In cold winters the stems die back, and new ones rise from the root in spring. Trim off the dead stem tips once the new growth shows. Wear gloves, since the stems carry spines.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Hummingbirds and other long-tongued pollinators visit the flowers. The brittle branches can break in windstorms. The seeds are poisonous if eaten, and children are most at risk.