Must see Cymbidium cultivar Middle Garden June

This month's selection of demonstrates the diversity of our collection. Scan the QR code below to use our Garden Explorer plant finder to follow this trail and discover more of our 20 000 plants.

#RBGSydney #MustSeeRBG 1. Bauhinia x blakeana 5. Aeschynanthus parasiticus 7. Aloe cultivars (Hong Kong Orchid Tree) (Lipstick Plant) Aloe ‘Eager Beaver’ pictured The national of Hong Kong, This trailing plant with bright orange Aloes are succulent plants from this tree has a curious history. It was from the African Violet family, Southern Africa, Madagascar, Jordan first discovered in 1880 growing next is not, as the and the Arabian Peninsula. There to a ruined building in Pokfulam, name suggest a parasite, but an are over 500 species, and they Hong Kong by a catholic missionary. epiphyte. This is a plant that grows hybridise easily. On the Greenway He took a cutting, grew the plant and attached to another plant, usually Terrace discover a range of hybrids it found its way to the Hong Kong a tree but doesn’t take any water or bred in South Africa for spectacular Zoological and Botanical Garden. nutrients from the host plant. Higher flowering, drought tolerance and However, the plant was sterile, in the canopy it does get access to bird attraction. Enjoy their bright red, producing no viable seed. All plants light and a place to display its flowers orange and yellow tubular flowers in cultivation are genetically identical to that first tree because to pollinators such as . They occur in the plants habitat, on mass. Visit our Succulent Garden to learn more and explore the they have all been grown from cuttings, originally distributed by that stretches from tropical India all the way to Vietnam. diversity of our Aloe collection. Hong Kong Botanical Garden from 1914. 6. Licuala ramsayi var.ramsayi 8. Montanoa grandiflora 2. Davidsonia pruriens (Davidson's Plum, Ooray) (Queensland Fan Palm) (Tree Daisy)

This slender, rainforest tree is endemic This species comes from far north Like a common garden daisy on to tropical rainforest in far north Queensland where it is found steroids, the tree daisy grows Queensland. It bears large plum growing along streams and in to four metres tall and in early shaped and coloured fruit that hang swamps in rainforests such as the winter is covered in typical fried- in clusters directly from the trunk and Daintree, close to the coast. These egg daisy flowers, white with a woody stems. The fruit is bright red palms reach 10-15 metres in height yellow centre. It is so floriferous on the inside and very sour. It was an and often grow in large stands. Their that stems laden with terminal important food for Aboriginal Cultural large round, split filter the flowers bend towards the ground. groups and is now used to make jams, light and create a magical and much Foliage is attractively bipinnate sauces and even wine. The species photographed landscape of sun and and the plant responses well to name refers to fine hairs that occur shadow. White flowers are followed hard pruning after flowering. on leaves and the skin of the fruit and by orange-red fruit, bearing a single seed. may cause irritation.

3. Opuntia tomentosa (Velvet Prickly Pear)

Velvet Prickly Pear, from Mexico is a large shrub with multiple branches comprising rounded succulent 4. PLANT OF THE MONTH cladodes (flattened stem segments) that carry out photosynthesis. Camellia amplexicaulis Segments are dotted with areoles (small raised structures) filled with This species is extinct in the wild but cultivated in gardens in fine yellow glochids (barbed bristles). North Vietnam where the plant originates. It is very different Bright orange flowers are followed by to the commonly cultivated garden Camellias. It has red fruit also covered in bristles. These magnificent, large glossy green leaves and superb crimson easily lodge in the skin or if ingested new growth. The base of the wraps around the stem and in the mouth or throat. Pads easily it is here that the flowers appear as pink ball-shaped buds rroot and grow when they fall and before opening to display a unique cup-shaped pink flower hit the ground and the species is an environmental weed in NSW and Qld.