Bush Fuchsia or Fuchsia Heath

.

One of the 40 Epacris species is Epacris longifolia, that has as common name Bush Fuchsia or Fuchsia Heath. These in Australia native plants belong to the plant family  Epacridaceae. They are wild shooting up shrubs with thin spiky branches with are densely set with heart-shaped tough and sharp-pointed - something leathery - leaves. The nice tubular red flowers of the Bush Fuchsia are going over near the five sepals in a white colour. Flowers with a length of nearly 40 mm are hanging on the branches with short internodien in dense rows between the leaf-rosettes. In free nature the always green remaining Bush Fuchsia grows on sandstone ledges and reefs in heat open forests, but there then well in the sheltered under-grown over. They become there about 1.00 m high and wide.

In Germany the flowering branches became earlier used for binding flowers. The flowering period is from Februari till May. It is there now more a houseplant while this plant had to winter indoors by a minimum of 5°C. Extensive givens of care you find on the website in German language of Cybergarten:  http://www.dem.de/entertainment/cybergarten/zimmerpflanzen/epacris.html

.

'Gelderse Fuchsia Info-site'- November 2008