Tree of the Week: Queensland Lacebark

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The Queensland Lacebark, Pink Flame Tree -- Brachychiton discolor

This Australia native tree is an ornamental but variable individual, a member of a 30-odd related group of species of trees and shrubs in the genus Brachychiton.The trunk is often, but not always, bottle shaped (to accommodate water storage). Leaves may be deeply lobed or less so, and are quite variable insize. Parts of the younger tree, or the whole tree, may be blooming on dry season deciduous wood, so that some branches may be bare or in bloom, while other ones are not. Time of leaf drop is erratic. The genus name refers to the loose coat or short tunic, brachis chyton that covers the seed; sometimes the old genus name, Sterculia is still used.

The Queensland Lacebark is a briefly deciduous tree that grows at a moderate pace into a strong central leader shape until it finally reaches 40 to 60 feet tall. Pyramidal in youth, it starts spreading in middle age to become a good 30 feet wide. On older trees, the trunkusually assumes a distinct bottle shape; that and its solid shape make for an imposing appearance. Bark is mainly smooth and whitish gray. The 8-inch-long, 6-inch-wide leaves are blue-green atop and whitish underneath; they may be deeply lobed and resemble those of the California plane tree, Platanus racemosa,or have no, few or shallower lobes, especially when the tree becomes older.

Young trees bloom partially or wholly on bare branches on what was the tree’s dry season in its area of origin, or at least what the tree remembers that to be; older trees tend to drop all their leaves before blooming. Pink bell-shaped flowers appear in summer. Blossoms and the canoe-shaped fruit are covered with rusty brown fuzz on the outside. Leaf, flower and fruit drop may appear messy to some. The Q.L. prefers full sun, little to moderate water and will take most any soil.

Relatives one is likely to see here include the Flame Tree, B. acerifolius, with spectacular red flowers; the Bottle Tree, B. populneus, appreciated in the desert for its shade; and the Queensland Bottle Tree, B. rupestris, with a characteristic bottle shaped trunk.

--Pieter Severynen

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