Tag Archives: wild pomegranate

Wild Pomegranate – Sunbird Magnet

Burchellia_bubalina_flowers

If birds in your garden bring a smile to your face then adding a Wild Pomegranate to your landscape will pull Sunbirds from all around.

The shrub – which enjoys dappled shade and filtered sunlight – is a fairly neat looking 2-4 meter shrub/tree that will bear bunches of flowers though-out summer. Towards the end of summer the wild pomegranate develops small pear shaped fruits which will attract all the fruit eaters.

The wild pomegranate is an attractive ornamental shrub/tree
that is also used to attract nectar-feeding birds. The combination of its bright red
flowers with the glossy, dark green leaves, creates a beautiful display in the small garden,
both in shade and in full sun.

The wild pomegranate has a smooth, grey-brown bark that becomes rougher with age.
The tree bears new twigs that are always covered with hairs. The dark green, glossy,
opposite leaves are hairless above and paler below, with fine soft hairs along the vein.

Leaves are soft when young, becoming thickly leathery as they age.

In early spring to mid-summer, the tree bears bright red to orange flowers in dense
terminal clusters, and are followed by green, urn-shaped fruits that are also borne
in dense clusters. The fruits are crowned with distinctive horn-like calyx lobes.
The fruits turn brown as they ripen and then become woody, remaining on the tree for
many month

Wild Pomegranate Shrub - sunbird delight
Wild Pomegranate Shrub - sunbird delight

More info at http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Events/Arborweek/trees/WildPomegranate.asp