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Darwinia oxylepis
Also called Gillam's Bell
Gillham's bell is a dense, upright shrub of about 1 to 1.5 m from southwest Western Australia, grown for its bright red bell-shaped bracts in spring. It is rarely cultivated, is hard to raise from seed, and is best propagated from cuttings or by grafting onto Darwinia citriodora.
Darwinia oxylepis, commonly known as Gillham's bell, is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It grows as a dense, upright shrub 1.0–1.5 m (3.3–4.9 ft) high, and produces large numbers of red inflorescences prominently displayed on the ends of the branchlets in spring. It is one of a group of Darwinias including D. leiostyla, D. macrostegia, D. meeboldii, D. collina and D. squarrosa collectively known as mountain bells. The species is found in only a few seasonally moist gullies near the lower slopes of the Stirling Range National Park and nearby Porongurup National Park and is therefore classified as endangered.
As with others in the genus, D. oxylepis is not well known in cultivation. It is difficult to grow from seed but relatively easy to grow from cuttings, although generally short-lived in the garden. It has been grafted onto the hardier eastern Australian D. citriodora, and this is the preferred method of propagation.
This darwinia grows in stony, peaty sand in rocky gullies that are wet in winter. There are only four known populations of D. oxylepis, all of them in national parks (Stirling Range and Porongurup). They grow in areas known to be significantly affected by Phytophthora cinnamomi fungus to which they are vulnerable. They are also in areas that are prone to bushfire. The species is killed by fire and regenerates from seed stored in the soil but it takes up to four years before new plants produce seed. More frequent fire events may therefore cause loss of populations. The plants also grow in areas frequented by tourists and are at risk from trampling and unauthorised picking of plant parts.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Darwinia oxylepis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
