Calliandra surinamensis is a low branching evergreen tropical shrub native to tropical South America that is named after Suriname, a country in northern South America. Common names include Pink powder puff, Pompon De Marin, Surinam powderpuff and Surinamese stickpea.
Description
This highly branched, spreading shrub features silky bipinnate leaves. Each pair of leaflets, or pinnae, are in turn divided into about six pairs of leaflets, pinnules. The plant usually has complexly branched multiple trunks and grows to a height of about 8 meters. Left unpruned it grows long thin branches that eventually droop down onto the ground. The leaves close and droop from dusk until morning when they once again reopen. Leaves are glossy rusty in colour when new, turning to a dark metallic green as they age.
Bunch of flowers
It produces large, showy flower heads that resemble powder puffs or oversized wattle flowers that appear from winter to spring. Although the petals are small, the numerous stamens—white at the base and pink toward the tips—provide most of the colour. The flowers present as globose heads with small green petals and calyx with up to a 100 stamens more or less united into a tube. The stamens are long, hairlike, colourful and protrude well beyond the petals. C. surinamensis flowers all year round with definite more prolific periods. The flowers are short lived and sticky and combined with their quantity give this plant a reputation for making a mess especially on vehicles parked under it.
The numerous colourful stamens are white towards the base and pink towards the top. It is the stamens & anthers that give the flower the appearance of a pink powder puff. The fruit is a 4 centimetres (1.5 in) long pod. The shrub's year round nectar and pollen attracts wildlife such as lorikeets, hummingbirds and fruit bats.
Flowers
Bunch of flowers
It produces large, showy flower heads that resemble powder puffs or oversized wattle flowers that appear from...
