10 Metarungia longistrobus Seeds - Sunbird Bush - Beautiful Indigenous Flowering Shrub

Metarungia longistrobus Seeds

Metarungia longistrobus commonly known as Sunbird Bush in English and Sonbekkiebos in Afrikaans is an unusual, attractive evergreen shrub for the shade garden, with long orange-brown flowers in candle-shaped inflorescences in late summer. Metarungia longistrobus is a small, soft shrub, branching near the base to form a dense shrub 1–2 m tall with a spread of 1–2 m.

Branchlets are densely covered in short white hairs that are close to the stem, and are stiff to silky to the touch. The leaves are oppositely paired and form adjacent pairs at right angles (decussate). The leaves are narrowly elliptic, tapering at both ends, and range from 12–20 cm long and 4–7 cm broad. They are a light grey-green colour when young, becoming glossy green with maturity. The flowers are orange-brown to yellow and are produced twice a year: mainly in late summer to autumn (January to March) but also in winter to spring (July to September). The flowers are 2-lipped, 5 cm long, the upper lip is long, narrow, hooded and erect and the lower lip is rolled and twisted.

The anthers and stigma are underneath the hood of the upper lip. The flowers are produced in 5–9 cm long spikes at the tips of branches and on upper short side branches. The flowers emerge from between large, closely overlapping, green bracts, which give the inflorescence a cone-like appearance. The seeds are flattened discs 5–6 mm in diameter and are released explosively from the seed capsules. The Sunbird Bush makes an unusual and beautiful garden shrub that can be planted as a specimen shrub in the shade garden, or as part of an informal hedge, or in containers, and it attracts sunbirds, bees and butterflies to the garden.

On offer is a pack of 10 Seeds

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