Albizia julibrissin, Silk Tree
I saw this tree in flower yesterday in a local garden. It was late in the afternoon of another hot day and the flowers had unfortunately wilted and faded. There are no conspicuous petals on the flower just a tassel of stamens and on the bright pink form called 'Rosea' these make quite an impact. The tree is graceful and shapely with soft ferny foliage and it usually grows to about 5 metres. It is native from Iran to Japan and is commonly grown in Mediterranean gardens or in warm coastal gardens with a dry climate and light sandy soils. The genus Albizia was named after the Italian naturalist Albizzi in the 18th century.
We call this tree 'Mimosa' and it is not as popular as it once was. The seeds tend to suddenly sprout in areas where none have grown after 30 years or so.
ReplyDeleteThe blooms have a delicate sweet fragrance, did you notice? As children, we used them for pretend powderpuffs.
This is the Rain tree in Indian parlance. There is one in my ancestral home which is at least 25 metres tall, with a huge, huge canopy. As children, we used to shape the dark sticky pods into balls to throw at friends, and believe me, it could hurt badly. Nice post that brought back nice ('ouch!') memories! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI bought a small one during winter from Bunnings for $1 that was nearly dead. I repotted it and now spring has arrived it's growing a couple of inches a week! Very Beautiful leaves.
ReplyDeleteI hope in the future to put it in the back yard as a shade tree. I have a Poinciana there now but it's not doing too well... too cold in Sydney I think.
Albizia julibrissin is a unique, beautiful tree. It looks really nice there.
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