Callistemon salignus
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Callistemon salignus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Metrosideros saligna Sm.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
A small tree to 30 ft in the wild, with a papery bark; young stems silky-hairy. Leaves thin but firm in texture, linear to linear-lanceolate, tapered at both ends, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long and up to 1⁄2 in. wide, red when unfolding, later dull green; midrib prominent. Flower-spikes 2 to 3 in. long, with creamy or pale pink stamens (red or white in some cultivated forms).
Native of S.E. Australia, where it is found in coastal areas and swampy places. It is hardy on a wall in all but the coldest gardens, but in this country never makes so tall a plant as it does in the wild.
C pallidus (Bonpl.) DC.
Synonyms
Metrosideros pallida Bonpl
C sieberi DC.
Synonyms
C. pithyoides Miq
A shrub to about 15 ft in the wild with dark grey-brown stems. Leaves linear, thick and rigid, densely packed on the shoots, up to 1 in. long and {1/10} in. wide. Flower-spikes narrow, {3/4} to 1{1/2} in. long; stamens pale yellow. A native of the mountains of south-eastern Australia, known as the ‘Alpine Bottlebrush’. It is perhaps the hardiest of the species cultivated in Britain. There is a handsome small specimen outside the Australian House at Kew, of dense habit, with dark, glossy leaves.
C viridiflorus (Sims) Sweet
Synonyms
Metrosideros viridiflora Sims
C. salignus var. viridiflorus (Sims) F. v. Muell