Kampala Tree and Palm Directory

Tree Species
Common Name
Tree Description
Tree Uses

English: Powder puff tree, Red Powderpuff.

+ Tree Species

Calliandra haematocephala

+ Tree Family

Mimosaceae

+ Ecology

Powder puff tree is native to Bolivia. The red powder puff flowers are attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. In Kampala, this tree can be found within Makerere University at Nkrumah Hall.

+ Description

Powder puff tree is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m high, usually multiple trunked, low-branching, spreading and forming a rounded crown. The leaves close at night.

BARK: thin, droop as the tree grows, no thorns

LEAVES: alternate, b-pinnate with one pair of pinnae (5-10 pairs of leaflets per pinna) open copper-pink but mature to dark green, petioles long, slightly swollen at the base. Basal pair of leaflets reduced, sub-opposite, inner leaflets smaller, terminal leaflets narrowly ovate, elliptic to obovate.

FLOWERS: red, pink blooming in puffs, red silky stamens.

FRUITS: brown pod like fruit, dry and hard.

+ Uses

Anti-oxidant compounds cause this plant to be used as a blood purifier in some traditional medicines.

An ornamental tree.

+ Propagation

Seeds.

+ Management

Fast growing. Trimming, pruning.

+ Remarks

The profuse, fragrant bloom is the main reason for its popularity, with big puffs, two to three inches across, of watermelon pink, deep red, or white silky stamens, produced during warm months. Calliandra comes from the Greek words kallos, meaning beauty and andros, meaning stamen.



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