Low-key bush adds splash of color to garden

Erle Nickel

Common name: California Flannel Bush

Genus/species: Fremontodendron californicum

Family: Sterculiaceae

Description: An evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub, sometimes tree, from dry woodlands, canyons and mountain slopes in California and the Southwest. The grayish-dusky green leathery leaves, 2-4 inches in diameter, have three, five or seven rounded lobes and are softly hairy underneath. From this very attractive year-round foliage appear bright yellow, shallowly saucer-shaped flowers, reaching 3 inches across, in late spring and often again in midautumn. The flowers are borne singly, the flower stalks being attached to the stem opposite to the corresponding leaf petiole. The anthers are a slightly darker and orangey yellow. They are borne on one side of the upper half of the free filaments.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flannelbush

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Fremontodendron Coville
Species: Fremontodendron californicum, Fremontodendron mexicanum

(Photo: Fremontodendron 'Ken Taylor')

The flannelbush or flannel bush (Fremontodendron, syn. Fremontia) is a genus of two species of shrubs from the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. They are treated within the Sterculiaceae by the most of the authors, in the tribe Fremontodendreae together with the genus Chiranthodendron, but also included in the family Malvaceae (fide APG).

The leaves have a leathery and fuzzy texture reminiscent of flannel (thus the name), and the yellow and orange flowers are large and showy. The hairs of the leaves and young shoots can cause skin irritation. The genus is named after John C. Frémont.

There are two species: the California Flannelbush F. californicum, and the Mexican Flannelbush F. mexicanum, and a number of populations of uncertain status. In addition, a number of hybrid cultivars have been produced, including 'California Glory', 'Ken Taylor', and 'Pacific Sunset'.
The Pine Hill Flannelbush F. californicum ssp. decumbens is a rare variety known only from the Pine Hill Preserve in El Dorado County, California, though populations in Nevada County and Yuba County are very similar and best treated in this subspecies. The Napa Flannelbush F. californicum ssp. napense occurs in Napa and adjacent counties, and Thickleaf California Flannelbush F. californicum subsp. crassifolia occurs in Santa Cruz County.