''Erythrina vespertilio'' is a tree native to north and north-east

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Its common names are grey corkwood, bat's wing coral tree, yulbah and the more ambiguous " bean tree". In the

Western Desert language The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family. The name ''Wati'' tends to be used when considering the various varieties to be distinct languages, ''Western Desert'' w ...

it is known as ''ininti'' and in Arrernte and Anmatyerr it is known as ''atywerety''.

Description

The small tree has a straggly

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

and typically grows to a height of . The trunk has a diameter of approximately . It has thorns on the trunk and branches with bark that is deeply furrowed and corky and creamy-grey in colour. That leaves are bifoliolate or trifoliolate and are long. The leaflets have a broad wedge-shape with three lobes, resembling a bat's open wings. The leaflets are long and wide. The species is

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

in the dry season. The tree blooms between August and September producing scarlet to orange-red pea flowers that are long are found on terminal racemes in length. The flowers have a calyx that is long and petals that are about long. There are usually ten

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s. Flowering usually occurs when the tree is leafless. The seeds resemble beans and are orange to dark yellow in colour with a length of about found in pods that are long and wide.

Distribution

''E. vespertilio'' is found on all mainland states except Victoria, mainly in open woodlands but extends to arid areas and rainforest margins. It is found in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

and northern Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia, throughout most of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, northern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and north eastern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It found in an altitudinal range from near sea level to . It grows in a wide range of soils as long as drainage is good and it has a position in full sun.

Classification

The species was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

in 1848 as part of Thomas Mitchell's work ''Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia''. There are two synonyms ''Corallodendron vespertilio'' and ''Erythrina biloba'', and the name of this species is often misapplied to ''Erythrina numerosa''. There are two known

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

: * ''Erythrina vespertilio'' subsp. ''biloba''

F.Muell. Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria (state), Vic ...

& A.R.Bean * ''Erythrina vespertilio'' subsp. ''vespertilio''

Uses

It was widely traditionally used by

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

s in

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

for making woomeras and coolamons. The Warlpiri, Anmatyerr, Arrernte and

Alyawarr The Alyawarre, also spelt Alyawarr and also known as the Iliaura, are an Aboriginal Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. The Alyawarre are made up of roughly 1,200 associated peoples and actively engage in local tra ...

, use the wood to make shields, used either for warfare or ceremonially. These shields could then be used for

making fire Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of artificially starting a fire. It requires completing the fire triangle, usually by heating tinder above its autoignition temperature. Fire is an essential tool for human survival and t ...

with the friction method. The bark is also considered to have traditional medicinal uses. The fruit contains

alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...

s and the stem contains

isoflavonoid Isoflavonoids are a class of flavonoid phenolic compounds, many of which are biologically active. Isoflavonoids and their derivatives are sometimes referred to as phytoestrogens, as many isoflavonoid compounds have biological effects via the estr ...

s. Phaseollidin (a

flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

) showed cytotoxic activities ''

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning ''in glass'', or ''in the glass'') Research, studies are performed with Cell (biology), cells or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in ...

'' against prostate cancer cell lines at high doses.Iranshahi M., Vu H., Pham N., Zencak D., Forster P., Quinn R.J.,"Cytotoxic evaluation of alkaloids and isoflavonoids from the Australian tree erythrina vespertilio". ''Planta Medica''. 78 (7) (pp 730-736), 2012. The

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s are used to make decorations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5396436

vespertilio ''Vespertilio'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae. The common name for this family is vesper bats, which is a better-known classification than ''Vespertilio''. They are also known as frosted bats. Species within the genus ''Vesp ...

Flora of Queensland Flora of the Northern Territory Rosids of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of New South Wales Australian Aboriginal bushcraft Fabales of Australia Bush medicine Medicinal plants of Australia Trees of Australia Drought-tolerant trees Plants described in 1848