A tropical shrub with small coral-colored flowers and compound leaves, used as an ornamental plant.
From Spanish 'corallita,' a diminutive form of 'coral' (little coral), reflecting how Spanish speakers named the plant for its coral-like flower clusters. The Spanish name traveled to English when the plant was introduced to European and North American cultivation in the 18th-19th centuries.
The corallita's common name perfectly captures how people naturally describe plants—'corallita' means 'little coral' in Spanish, showing that even before scientific naming, farmers and gardeners were categorizing plants using poetic metaphors based on what the flowers looked like.
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