Calliandra eriophylla Seeds | Pink Fairy Duster

Pink fairy duster with fine bipinnate leaves and spherical pink stamen heads — Pink Fairy Duster (*Calliandra eriophylla*): Fabaceae, desert slopes of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

LATIN NAME: Calliandra eriophylla

COMMON NAME: Pink Fairy Duster

Plant Profile

Pink fairy duster is a low, woody shrub of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, growing thirty centimetres to a metre tall and spreading wider than it is high. Its leaves are bipinnate and very fine, and its flowers are spherical heads of long pink stamens, opening in spring and again after summer rain. The plant is drought-deciduous and can look like a bundle of bare sticks for months, then leaf out and flower within a week of a storm. It grows on gravelly slopes, mesas and desert flats in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico, often with creosote and ocotillo, and it is one of the most cold-hardy of the fairy dusters, surviving temperatures well below freezing. Its seed pods are small and bristly and burst open when ripe.

Science & Biotechnology

Calliandra eriophylla is a mimosoid legume, and its pink staminal filaments are the pollinator reward, with the petals reduced to small green lobes. The species is pollinated by bees and by hummingbirds in different parts of its range, and the flower structure is generalised enough to accept both. It is one of the few fairy dusters that is cold-hardy, and it survives by shedding its leaves and reducing its metabolism to a minimum, then flushing within days of rain. Its roots are shallow and wide, which allows it to capture small rain events that do not penetrate deeply. The species hybridises with Calliandra californica where their ranges meet in Baja California, producing intermediate plants that are difficult to assign. Seed germination requires scarification, and the seed bank can persist for years in the soil.

Uses & Benefits

The shrub is used in desert landscaping as a low specimen, a ground cover on dry slopes and a container plant, and its flowers are a reliable source of nectar for hummingbirds and bees. It is also planted for erosion control on gravelly banks, where its wide root system holds the surface. In Mexico it has a place in folk medicine as a wound wash and a tea for stomach complaints. Its seed is eaten by small birds and rodents. In the garden it needs full sun, sharp drainage and very little water, and it should be cut back after flowering to keep it dense. It is not a plant for rich soil or for regular irrigation, which makes it soft and short-lived.

Growing from Seed

Scarify the seed with sandpaper or hot water, soak overnight, and sow one centimetre deep in a gritty mix at twenty-five degrees. Germination takes one to three weeks. The seedling grows quickly and should be planted out young, since it develops a wide root system. Choose a site in full sun with gravelly, well-drained soil, and water only to establish. Prune after flowering to keep the plant compact, and cut back hard in late winter if it has become leggy. It tolerates frost to about minus ten degrees, dying back to the base and regrowing in spring. Do not fertilize, and do not plant it in a bed that receives regular irrigation.

Our Take

A low desert shrub with pink powder puffs and a talent for surviving on almost nothing. Gravel, sun and hard pruning.

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