Erythrina × bidwillii

Erythrina × bidwillii is the scientific name for two different cultivars produced from hybridising Erythrina species at Camden Park Estate, New South Wales, Australia, in the early 1840s by William Macarthur, one of the most active and influential horticulturists in Australia.

Leaflets 5–10 cm long, generally ovate-elliptic as in Erythrina crista-galli and occasionally with a single prickle.

Exports were also listed in this publication, with the 1845 edition noting that William Macarthur sent two hybrid coral trees known as Erythrina camdenensis to Conrad Loddiges and Sons, a well known Hackney nurseryman in London.

This was named by Macarthur after his convict gardener Edmund Blake, who was probably responsible for making the cross, which, incidentally was the first hybrid to be produced anywhere in the world between woody leguminous plants.

Both Erythrina × bidwillii cultivars are totally sterile hybrids that can be raised from cuttings, with some difficulty.