Fallugia paradoxa
Common name: 
Apache Plume
Pronunciation: 
fah-LEW-gee-uh par-uh-DOKS-uh
Family: 
Rosaceae
Genus: 
Fallugia
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub, erect, to 8 ft (2.5 m) high. Slender branches, with buff and white exfoliating bark.  Leaves are alternate, small, to 2 × 0.8 cm, deeply cut with 3-7 linear lobes.  Flowers are mostly solitary, 2 cm across, at the end of branches, each with 5 white spreading petals and the center filled with numerous stamens and styles. After petal fall the styles become plume-like and lavender, each 3 to 5 cm long and attached to a single fruit (an  achene).  These feathery appendages assist in wind dispersal of the individual fruit (“seeds”).
  • Full sun, tolerates alkaline soils, needs excellent drainage, especially in wet winter areas
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 5  Its native range extends from southeastern California and southern Nevada, to southern Colorado, west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and to northern Mexico; it is found in arid habitats such as desert woodlands and scrub.
  • Fallugia: for Abbot Virgilio Falugi of Vallombrosa, Italian botanist.  paradoxa: paradoxical, contrary to expectations
  • Oregon State University campus: southeast of Community Hall, east of a Baldcypress.
Click image to enlarge
  • plants habit, flowering

    plants habit, flowering

  • branches

    branches

  • branch

    branch

  • leaf

    leaf

  • flowering branches

    flowering branches

  • flower and fruit cluster

    flower and fruit cluster

  • flower

    flower

  • fruit cluster

    fruit cluster