Sunday, April 9, 2017

Answer

We had a few comments yesterday--okay, two comments--asking about the white, nutty-looking things in this photo.

 We're assuming they weren't referring to Roxy...BOL!


 They are the seed capsules  of Callistemons.
 Known locally as Bottlebrush trees.
You can see how they got that name.

As they are native drought-resistant plants, that come in many sizes and colours,  we have a variety in our garden.
They also attract birds--Honeyeaters.
(That we chase away.)
Below is one ready to flower, it will leave the woody
seed capsules behind.

Amazingly, the seeds can stay in the capsules for years. 
Some will open after a bushfire to reseed.

The tree that Roxy was behind is our Mystery Tree.  We planted a Banksia--and that grew instead!

20 comments:

  1. Our neighbor has some of those! They are pretty cool.

    Bell Fur Zoo Mama

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  2. Love that you have a mystery tree. We just have a mystery mutt!

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  3. That is fascinating. Thank you for solving the mystery

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  4. "White nutty thing in the photo....not Roxy". SHE is very funny.
    We have heard of the bottlebrush plant but never seen it.
    DownUnder has the most interesting critters and plants.
    Hugs madi your bfff

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  5. We've got a lot of mysteries around here also. The most pressing one at present is "where's my dinner?".

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  6. OMD!!! We planted one of those in my new backyard too. Ours is a WEEPING Bottlebrush tree but the blooms are the same. I wonder why it's WEEPING???

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  7. The bottlebrush tree is so pretty - with as dry as it gets here in the summer, we bet they would do well here too if only somePup wouldn't eat all the branches:)

    Woos - Lightning and Misty

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  8. How pretty it is and I love the color! Drought resistent is my kind of plant, that means I don't have to worry about watering it! :-)

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  9. Oh, I knew that! We gots them all over here in CA...ya knows, cause we are almost always in a drought..BOL! We gots one in our front yard. I still likes the mystery puppers behind the plant ☺
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

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  10. Love those bottlebrush trees very much! We see them on our southern travels, but they are sadly not for our climate. You always want what you can't have, right?!?

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  11. We have bottlebrush trees here, too!

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  12. wow that's a wonderful tree... the mama dreams about such a bottlebrush tree in our garden... but with a weim-gardener this could be difficult lol

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  13. How beautiful! We learned something new today. Thank you!

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  14. How cool! When it is in bloom it is so pretty!

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  15. Wow you have such cool trees in your neck of the woods.

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  16. They are very pretty. Interesting that they will open after brush fires.

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  17. Thanks for telling us more about the Callistemons, we have one in our Garden (South Mississippi, USA) and we always like learning more about our plants. Alas we don't think we have Honeyeaters and we aren't sure if any of our native birds like it. But it does look pretty and it is super easy to grow here.

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