Bottlebrush is a native of Australia. This hybrid, 'King's Park Special,' is a sterile hybrid developed
to avoid the production of seed heads that some growers consider unsightly. (Personally I think they
look sort of cool.) It does not
occur in the wild.
Identification: This species reaches 15′ (4.6 m). Flowerheads are
bottlebrush-shaped cylinders composed of soft filaments. These filaments are actually the stamens
of the flowers; the flowers themselves are fused together in a mass along the center. Except for
the lack of seed production, this hybrid looks like its wild forebears Callistemon citrinus × C. viminalis.
(The '×' means "crossed with.")