Beaufortia squarrosa ( Sand Bottlebrush)

Beaufortia squarrosa is a shrub with brilliant red flowers. It flowers for months from spring through to autumn. (It is similar to Melaleucas). This is another of the shrubs we tried to rescue from the bulldozer. It was cut back hard and put into the new mound that was made to provide the extra drainage required by many Australian native plants.

Beaufortias need particularly good drainage. They are drought tolerant as we proved with this plant. It rarely received water other than the natural rainfall during winter and early spring, totalling 340mm (13 inches). Beaufortias are restricted to Western Australia and most are in the south west. Years ago when we were touring in the south west I remember seeing these brilliant ‘flames’ along the side of the road. I am not sure which species it was but sights similar to this photo were what we were seeing.

We must have some 35mm slides of this species. I must get the scanner going.