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Fallugia paradoxa (D. Don) Endl.

Modern name

Fallugia paradoxa (D.Don) Endl. ex Torr.

Synonyms

Sieversia paradoxa D. Don

A slender deciduous shrub 4 to 8 ft high, much branched below, more thinly above; branchlets white, covered with down. Leaves produced in clusters closely and alternately along the twigs, 12 to 23 in. long, 13 in. wide, cut usually into three or five (occasionally seven) narrow-linear lobes, recurved at the edges and 112 in. wide, dark green above, paler below, and covered all over with pale down. Flowers produced either singly or a few together on a raceme 114 to 4 in. long, from the end of the shoot or from the leaf-axis near the end. Each flower is 1 to 114 in. across, petals white; calyx 14 in. diameter, downy, with five ovate, pointed lobes; and five small bracts alternating with them. The heads of fruits are very handsome, each carpel being terminated by a slender style 1 in. to 112 in. long, clothed with silky hairs, the whole forming a dense feathery mass, 112 in. across. Flowers in July. Bot. Mag., t. 6660.

Native of S.E. California, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada; introduced in 1877. This interesting and beautiful shrub is very rare in cultivation, and likely to remain so. Coming from the dry, sun-baked hills of the south-western United States, it finds in the English climate conditions almost the opposite of its native surroundings. It would probably be best suited on a warm slope in the drier parts of England. Elsewhere it will thrive best in well-drained soil at the base of a sunny wall.


Fallugia paradoxa

Fallugia paradoxa

Genus

Fallugia

Other species in the genus

[No species article available]