Crimson Bottle Brush; Lemon Bottle Brush; Red Bottle Brush
Callistemon citrinus · Myrtaceae · 병솔나무
How to spot it
Marked by the lemon scent of rubbed leaves and bottle-brush-shaped crimson flower spikes.
Look
- Leaves
- Lanceolate to narrow elliptic leaves 2.5 to 7.5 cm long with a raised midrib; they smell of lemon when rubbed, and new leaves come out coppery.
- Flowers
- Up to 40 bright crimson flowers cluster in upright bottle-brush spikes 10 to 13 cm long at the branch tips, with very long stamens. It flowers in spring, summer and autumn; some cultivars are yellow, pink or white.
- Fruit
- Woody cup-shaped capsules about 6 mm across and long.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to eastern and southeastern Australia.
- Ecology
- Birds use the seeds and nectar as food, and bees gather at the flowers.