Trail 08

8 Bottlebrush Bush

An imported native of Australia, the bottlebrush, (Callistemon citrinus), is planted as an ornamental tree in New Zealand gardens. Like most Australian native trees, they can withstand near drought conditions and they thrive in New Zealand.

Bottlebrushes are from the same botanical family as the New Zealand native pohutukawa. The colour and structure of the flowers are similar, however the bottlebrush flowers are arranged in spikes, compared to the individual flowers of the pohutukawa.