Hello Petrafarmer...
welcome to GoY.

Check out our member ...

http://www.growsonyou.com/Delonix1/profile

He lives in the San Diego area and is very knowledgeable on trees in the USA.

I hope this helps.

Thank you!

:o)))

These trees are Erythrina caffra or Coral trees. It's a very common tree here which flowers from fall - spring with orange-red flowers. It's somewhat of a dangerous tree because the branches can be weak. If not pruned well large branches can break and fall on people. The reason why the branches break is because established trees can put on around 15 ft (4.6 m) of growth in a very short period of time.

Hi Delonix ...
thanks for info. re the Coral trees :o)

You're welcome. There's lots of Coral trees in the park which is located right next to Seaport Village. This tree also has very large thorns on the branches and trunks. The trunks on these trees at Seaport Village have all been de-thorned.

Does it take a long while to de-thorn, or is there a quick way of doing that ? How do they de-thorn ?

Thank you all for your help! :)

Terratoone:

I would think it takes a long time to de-thorn. Most Erythrina species (Coral trees) grow very quickly and have tons of thorns. I woud guess they use a large clippers...not exactly sure. I've de-thorned Bougainvillea before and it's a really big pain!!!

Here's some of my photos of Erythrina:

http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/46737-erythrina-caffra-kaffir-tree/member/Delonix1

http://www.growsonyou.com/delonix1/photos/erythrina

Petrafarmer:

You're welcome. :>)