Native Christmas Tree
Native Christmas Tree
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The Albany Woolly bush is the perfect Australian Native Christmas tree. Baubles, bells and angels hang gracefully from her limbs and being free of sticky sap, the bush is in our minds, a far superior indoors tree, to the traditional pine.
Adenanthos sericeus is found occurring naturally along the southern coast of Western Australia, from Albany to Esperance. It is also found in abundance in Australian back yards, having been planted on the 1st of January each year!
The Albany woolly bush was first know to European science thanks to Jacques Labillardière who was the naturalist on Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition in 1791. They were in search of the missing French explorer with possibly the longest name of any explorer in history, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse.
His friends called him John.
Putting the French aside, the indigenous folk of the south west of WA have known about the Albany woolly bush for thousands of years. In fact this was a plant they knew intimately. Thanks to its soft limbs, absence of sticky saps and abundance along the coast, the Albany woolly bush was reputedly the favoured toilet paper of the Bibbulmun and Minang people.
So there you have it. The Albany woolly bush is the perfect Christmas tree. After Christmas replant it in your backyard and you will never have to worry about being locked out of the house when nature calls!
