Tall Bottle-brush

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.