CALLISTEMON VIMINALIS
Common Name: Tall Bottle-brush
Chinese Name: 串錢柳
Family: Myrtaceae 桃金娘科
Scientific Name: Callistemon viminalis
Plant Type: Angiosperms (dicotyledons)
Flowering Period: Mar-May
Fruiting Period: Aug
Nativity to China/HK: Exotic
Height: 5-8 m
Fact:
The Tall Bottle-Brush is a small tree or shrub with a wide rounded crown, native to New South Wales and Australia. It is commonly found along watercourses on coastal plains.
The narrow lance-shaped leaves are 5-10 cm long and 0.8-1 cm wide, bronze green in colour.
The leaves with parallel veins grow alternately on brances that are long and hanging, creating a weeping effect somewhat like the willow tree.
The flowers have red stamens arranged into 5-15 cm long cylinders which resemble bottle cleaning brushes. They hang from the tips of pendulous branches and wave seductively in the breeze.
Its tiny and inconspicuous petals are green or pale coloured, and its flowering period can last as long as 4 weeks.
The fruit of the Tall Bottle-Brush are cup-shaped brown woody capsules, with dark brown seeds held inside them.
The evergreen tree should be grown in full sunlight on moist but well drained soil.
They are grown along roads and highways to acts as buffers, as well as along pedestrian pathways because of their attractive branches.