The beauty of silver trees with fiery blossoms surpasses that of fiery trees with silver flowers

About the author: One Hand Brush, One Hand Flower: Landscape architecture major, has deeply loved plants and nature since childhood, hopes to always work in plant-related fields, in this world only beautiful flowers and delicious food cannot be let down, Weibo @One Hand Brush One Hand Flower

Plants with silver leaves are always uniquely charming, and plants that have both silver leaves and gorgeous flowers are even more endlessly wonderful.

Acacia baileyana, Senecio cineraria, and Santolina chamaecyparissus, these plants have silver in their leaves just as their names suggest; though the name red flower jade hibiscus does not contain "silver," it shares the two characters "jade hibiscus" with the silver-leaved dusty miller, also hinting that she is a member of the silver-leaved family.

Leucophyllum frutescens, of the genus Leucophyllum in the family Scrophulariaceae, is a perennial evergreen shrub native to Mexico, with a small amount of cultivation in Guangdong, Guangxi and other places in China.

Leucophyllum frutescens is often used as an accent in flower borders; its silver leaves make it stand out especially, the alternate leaves densely covered in silvery-white down, the leaf margins slightly curled, giving it even more texture.

[1]by Clinton & Charles Robertson

Even before blooming, Leucophyllum frutescens is already extraordinarily eye-catching. From the spring when I first became acquainted with her, I had been looking forward to seeing her grace in "adding flowers to brocade." Summer and autumn are her blooming seasons. When I went to see her some days ago, she had just put out flower buds. "After three days apart, one should look at a flower with new eyes." When I saw her again, it seemed that overnight, strings of purple-red bells had been added to a sheet of silvery white; the delicate axillary flowers bloomed all together, fully enjoying boundless splendor, and this already striking plant became even more impossible to look away from. Leaning in for a closer look, the "bells" also bore silvery-white down, not as dense as the down on the stems and leaves but slightly longer; the inner walls of the "bells" were dotted with yellow markings, as if a few drops of yellow ink had been splashed on.

A moment of blooming, and the flowers also fade extremely quickly. When I came to see her again some days later, the grand spectacle was gone; the tree full of blossoms was like a fleeting dream, and who knows when the next round of splendor would be seen again.

While looking up information, I saw an interesting legend about Leucophyllum frutescens. It is said that in the United States this flower is nicknamed "Barometer Bush." It does not bloom often, but before and after it blooms, it often rains, even heavy rain or typhoons. I had not paid attention before; next time I must look carefully to see whether it is accurate.

Leucophyllum frutescens, silver tree with fiery blossoms, surpasses fiery trees with silver flowers.