Colletia hystrix ‘Rosea’

With their distinctive and strange appearance, the Colletias will never be mistaken for other plants. Growing 12ft high in quite dense vegetation, the fragrance of the flowers - or the buzzing of bees - may first alert you to the presence of C. hystrix ‘Rose’ which grows along the path leading from opposite the Rose Garden into what is now the Asia Garden (which this plant predates by several decades). The rigid green stems have sharp-pointed spines which are smothered in tiny tubular flowers with prominent stigmas which are attractive to butterflies. The plant is deciduous but has scarcely any leaves, and the cylindrical stems also photosynthesise.

The species was introduced into cultivation by the plant-hunting Veitch brothers of Exeter in 1882. It is endemic to Chile and N. Argentina.

[Another species of Colletia, C. paradoxa, from Brazil and Uruguay, grows in the Gardens in Area T on the downloadable map, the top of the Long Border, opposite the west end of the Mediterranean Climate Garden. This has blue-grey spines with flowers below the spines and is less floriferous.]