Plant 3 Calliandra emarginata

Red Powderpuff Plant

Description: 

Growth Form: Leguminous, erect, woody shrub or small tree with graceful tiers of horizontal branches. Can be pruned and grown as bushy shrub.

Foliage: Leaves compound, opposite, leaflets shaped like kidneys or lungs, light to medium green, with 3 leaflets (2 paired terminal ones, 1 lone and smaller) per petiole. Young leaves orangey, maturing to green. Leaflets and petiole somewhat velvety due to fine surface hairs. Leaves droop and fold up at night.

Flowers: Globular Mimosa-like powderpuff inflorescence, 2.5 to 6 cm across, with numerous red or pinkish-red filamentous stamens, lasting 2-3 days before wilting. Unopened flowers buds resemble a bunch of red berries. Free-flowering, providing nectar for hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies like Parthenos sylvia (Malaysian Blue Clipper). Fruits: Flattened dehiscent seedpods. ripening from green to brown, with thickened margin, before splitting open explosively from tip to base, twisting back in a double curve to eject seeds several meters away.

Cultivation: Provide well-watered, well-drained soils. Takes full sun to partial shade. Plant assumes sprawling and lower-growing form under full sun, but is more upright with more open crown under shade. Somewhat slow-growing, but withstands transplanting. If grown as bonsai, wire up younger branches to train them into desired shapes; plant may be temporarily potted in larger containers to encourage thickening of trunk and branches. Propagate by seeds (easier) or stem cuttings. Occasionally affected by white flies and scale insects.

Ethnobotanical Uses: Medicinal (Flowers are crushed and mixed with water to treat inflammation of the eye and ulcers of the skin. The leaf extract is prescribed for internal complaints.), dried.