Calliandra eriophylla
Family: Fabaceae
Plant Description: Shrub between 20 and 50 cm (8 and 20 in) high and has bipinnate leaves. Flowers have dense clusters of pale to deep pink stamens and are about 5 cm (2 in) wide.
Plant Trivia: The genus name, Calliandra, means “beautiful-stamens”. The species name, eriophylla is Greek for “wooly leaf”. This is a mimosa-appearing plant, but with more rarefied stamens. Two species that grow in the Coastal Bend are C. biflora (whitish or creamy flowers) and C. conferta (pink-lavender or whitish flowers).
Field Identification: grows as a loosely branched shrub that once matured, can reach heights of four to five feet in height and twice as wide in width. Naturally grows on dry, gravely hillsides.
Occurrence: Native to southwestern states. is a low spreading shrub which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.
Bloom Period: Winter-Summer
Plant Use: Often used as ornamental.
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