The Coral Trees of Jardim da Luz

Despite the name, this tree has never been near India. Portuguese sailors called the genus Erythrina a coral tree of the Indies after landing in Brazil convinced they had reached Asia, a five century old geography mistake baked permanently into the common name. Two specimens grow on the south side of Jardim da Luz in Carnide, both classified as trees of public interest since 1996 and both about a century old, standing twelve and fifteen metres tall. Each June they erupt in bright red flowers shaped unmistakably like a rooster's crest, the detail behind the species name crista-galli. The garden's formal name, Jardim Teixeira Rebelo, honours the founding director of the nearby Military College, though most locals still call it simply Jardim da Luz after the Baroque church across the square. A metro station sits so close to the garden gate that riders on the Blue Line surface almost directly beneath the coral trees' canopy without noticing. For two South American transplants misnamed after the wrong continent, they have settled into suburban Lisbon without complaint, flowering every summer regardless of what anyone calls them.