What plant has pinnate leaves with silvery-white fuzz?

Red-flowering silky oak, also known as Baker's silky oak, belongs to the Proteaceae family, and is native to the coast of Queensland, Australia and nearby sea islands. It is a dense shrub with a variable growth habit, reaching 3 m tall, with large brush-like flowers in red or white, sometimes pink and apricot, with a relatively long flowering period. Annual branches are lightly pruned. Its leaves can cause dermatitis in some people.

Morphological characteristics:

Evergreen small tree, tree height can reach 5 m, young branches have hairs. Leaves alternate, once-pinnately lobed, leaflets linear, leaf underside densely covered with white downy hairs. It flowers from spring to summer, with racemes, terminal, flower color orange-red to bright red. Follicles are asymmetrically ovate, flat, and turn brown when ripe. Both flowers and leaves are attractive.

Red-flowering silky oak

Growing environment:

An important reason red-flowering silky oak quickly became popular in South China is its outstanding landscape effect. It is an evergreen small tree or shrub that combines flower, foliage and form interest. Its flowers are racemes, resembling large brushes borne at the branch tips; the corolla is tubular, and the pistil style extends beyond the corolla tube with a curved tip. The bright red flowers are unique and showy. The flowering period of red-flowering silky oak is extremely long; in its place of origin the flowering period lasts more than 250 days. In South China, mature plants can flower year-round, with the peak flowering period from November to May of the following year. At peak bloom the whole tree is full of flowers, a brilliant sweep of red that is especially eye-catching. Its leaves are alternate pinnate leaves, and the underside is densely covered with silvery-white fuzz, hence the name silky oak.

Red-flowering silky oak

Landscape application:

Red-flowering silky oak is mainly used in flower borders, courtyards, roadside greenbelts and pine forest improvement. To increase the flowering amount of red-flowering silky oak, it should be pruned once a year. In flower borders, red-flowering silky oak can be used as an upper-layer tree species planted in the background, or combined with other shrubs and groundcovers along roads as a screen-belt tree species; in park green spaces and gardens, it can be used as an ornamental tree planted alone or in groups. Its long flowering period, attractive appearance and good pollution resistance made it favored by the landscaping market as soon as it was introduced.

Red-flowering silky oak

Indoor pot culture:

When growing it as a small indoor potted plant, first sow the seeds in a seedling tray, and after germination plant seedlings with similar growth rates in 3-5 inch pots, so growth will be more uniform. When transplanting, be careful not to damage the roots. Generally, for 3 inch pots it is best to plant more than five seedlings so growth is more luxuriant. The pot can be an antique-style ceramic pot or an ornate blue-and-white porcelain pot, both of which set off the fine leaves of the silky oak well. Finally, place it at a window or in a bright indoor spot. Because the seedlings are limited by the pot, they will not grow too large and can be maintained for a very long time. However, if the growing location has insufficient light, the seedlings are prone to becoming leggy, which affects their appearance.