PLANT OF THE MONTH

AUGUST 2021 — Spiny Desfontainia

Common Name:  Spiny Desfontainia, or Chilean Holly

Latin Name:   Desfontainia spinose ( des-fon-TA-ne-a )

Family:   Columelliaceae

Type:   Evergreen shrub

Origin:   South America

Location at Bloedel Reserve:   Rhododendron Glen

Garden Uses:  Flowering ornamental

Fun Fact: This vibrant plant grows in the understory of southern beech forests in the Valdivian temperate rainforest of Chile and Argentina, sometimes growing as tall as 13 feet!  In 2001, this species was discovered roughly 100 feet up in the rainforest canopy, growing as an epiphyte (a plant that grows on a host plant but takes no nutrients from it) on an extremely long-living host tree called a Patagonian Cypress.