Erythrina herbacea alba ‘De Soto’

The 'De Soto' coral bean is an extremely rare white-flowered form of the familiar southeastern native Erythrina herbacea, whose usual dress is fire-engine scarlet. Where the wild coral bean lights the spring with red, this selection raises the same slender, tubular spires in clean, cool white, a startling and lovely departure that Woodlanders introduced some years ago and is pleased to offer again.

The story behind the plant is as singular as the color. Every 'De Soto' in cultivation traces back to a single wild plant discovered on an island near Tampa, Florida, and propagated from that one white-flowered individual. In the essentially frost-free climate where the parent grew, that plant built into a large woody shrub; farther north, as with the ordinary coral bean, the top dies down each winter and the plant returns each spring as a herbaceous perennial from a thick, woody rootstock.

In the garden 'De Soto' brings the same architecture and hummingbird appeal as the red coral bean, only in a rarer key. The white spires read cool and luminous against dark foliage and pair beautifully with softer whites, blues, and silvers where the scarlet form would demand a hotter scheme. Set the plant at the back of a sunny native border or a pollinator garden, and let the spring flowers draw hummingbirds and early bees. As with all coral beans, the bright seeds that follow are poisonous, so keep the plant clear of nibbling children and pets.

Culture is that of the species. Give 'De Soto' full sun, rich but well-drained soil, and generous summer water, and the plant will shrug off heat with ease. In USDA zones 8 through 10 the coral bean may hold as a woody shrub; at the cold edge, cut the stems back after frost, mound coarse sand and pine straw over the crown, and uncover in spring. For the collector of native rarities, a white-flowered coral bean with a genuine wild pedigree is a quiet treasure.