PlantFiles: Brush Kurrajong, Lacebarktree, Lacebar Kurrajong, Pink Flame Tree, Pink Sterculia, Queensland Laceba
Brachychiton discolor

A beautiful tree that here in the Rio Grande Valley stays green all year around tough it does drop leaves in the Spring. I bought mine 12 years ago at a foot and a half high for $4.99. Now it is mid-Spring 2013 and it has bloomed for the first time rather sporadically. Hopefully each year to come it will bloom denser.

Though this is a rainforest tree from eastern Australia, it does very well in a mediterranean relatively dry climate. It is closely related to the bottle tree and flame tree that also do well here in Southern California. All other Brachychitons excell here, though B australis is a bit touchy with cold and overwatering.

This tree is known for its showy pink flowers and stout, tapering trunk. It flowers in So Cal in the early to mid summer when most of the leaves have fallen off. So it is deciduous in the warm season. Some marginal areas force it to lose its leaves in the fall, too. The leaves are large and deeply divided with smooth angles.

Germination is very straightforward, but getting the seeds out of the pods can be a challenge. If you are lucky enough to grab a pot before the squirrels have raided it, then use gloves or some other protection as the yellow, stiff hairs inside the pod surrounding the 1cm oval brown seeds are extremely hard to get out of your fingers once they have burrowed in. This is also true for several other species, such as acerfolia and bidwilli. Ouch!

Once germinated, the little trees do well even if full, hot sun but seem to need a lot of water for the first few months. Then they become surprisingly drought tolerant. It's a fairly fast growing tree.