Bottle Brushes

Bottlebrushes:

All of the Callistemon family
are Bottlebrushes

and so are some of the Melalucas,
the paperbarks,
we have seen before
this one on the way
to the Mangroves...








But today
we are going to walk through
the Callistemons

The name comes from the Greek
callos = beautiful
stemon = stamen

All of the Bottlebrushes
have fragrant leaves
dotted with oil glands

The flowers are stalkless
with conspicuous
highly coloured stamens

The flowers and the fruit
are much loved by the birds
and for that reason
and their colour
as well as their hardiness
and adaptability,
many are planted
in neighbourhood gardens

The woody seed cases
contain many minute
fine seeds









which are only released
when the plant dies
or if the seed pod is removed

One year I cut
many Callistemon branches
to make Christmas wreathes
and noticed
that after a few days
the seeds began
to drop out of the pods

They often flower
twice a year

There are over 25 species
of Callistemon
endemic to Australia

They grow quickly
and under varied conditions

'Beautiful stamens'
Callistemons

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