Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Cow Itch Tree

Lagunaria patersonia

Also called Norfolk Island Hibiscus, Pyramid Tree, Sallywood, White Oak, Whitewood

Cow Itch Tree
Photo: Consultaplantas, CC BY-SA 4.0

A tall, columnar evergreen tree from eastern Australia and Norfolk Island, grown for its pink hibiscus-like flowers and neat pyramid shape. Its seed capsules carry irritating hairs, so handle them with care.

Family
Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while young, then moderately; tolerates short dry spells once established.
Soil
Well-drained loam; tolerates a range of soils including sandy and clay.
Temperature
15–30 °C; tolerates light frost once established, protect young plants below about 0 °C.
How easy
Easy
Native range
E. Queensland to NE. New South Wales, Norfolk Is., Lord Howe Is.
Climate
wet tropical

About

Lagunaria patersonia is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae. It is commonly known as the pyramid tree, Norfolk Island hibiscus, Queensland white oak, sally wood, or simply as white oak on Norfolk Island. Its seed capsules are filled with irritating hairs giving rise to common names, itchy bomb tree, and cow itch tree.

Other Lagunaria plants

Cow itch tree

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lagunaria patersonia 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…