Saturday 5 September 2009

Bottle brush


Still at Terrigal, here's a lovely bottlebrush blooming for spring.

4 comments:

  1. I love those flowers. So interesting looking!

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  2. What sort of a bottle-brush is this Sally? It is not what I know as a callistemon. I always thought this to be the NZ Christmas Bush.

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  3. Julie's right -- it's a pohutukawa or New Zealand Christmas tree, first cousin to the Australian callistemons, aka bottlebrushes

    I don't think it's the usual pohutukawa, Metrosideros excelsa, which has dark crimson or (sometimes) yellow flowers at Christmas. This one looks like the cultivar of M. collina known as 'Springfire' or 'Thomasii' which bears much brighter flowers in spring. It's not as big a grower, usually staying as a large shrub.

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