Callistemon pityoides

A really lovely form of Callistemon where the clue is in the name – this is a plant from the alpine slopes between 1000m and 2000m high in the Snowy Mountains, the Blue Mountains and the north-eastern alps of Victoria. It flourishes near rocky streams, in damp and often swampy areas with the thickets sometimes being so dense as to exclude all other plants. It has been observed that seed from the higher slopes will produce plants up to 1m in height and breadth, while plants from the lower ranges can reach 2m or even 3m in height and across.

The specific epithet comes from the Greek with ‘pitys’, meaning ‘pine’ and ‘eîdos, meaning ‘like’ and indeed, if pine needles were squashed and ironed flat, they may well look like the leaves of the Callistemon. As it is, the emerging leaves are soft in texture and silvery-grey in colour becoming more olive tinted as they mature, and they beautifully offset the bronze-coloured buds that open to creamy yellow bottlebrush flowers in mid-summer. These flower spikes then develop into woody seed capsules around the branch which continues to grow out beyond them.

In the UK, Callistemon pityoides is a plant for coastal and city areas but may need some protection in colder gardens. They will thrive in full sun on clay or loamy soils that are moist-but-well-drained.