Leucophyta brownii

Leucophyta brownii, Cushion Bush, is endemic to the southern coast of Australia, occuring amongst sand dunes and in rock crevices in exposed coastal cliffs. It forms a small compact bush with striking silver foliage in a mass of tangled wiry branchlets. The leaves have been reduced to scale-like hairs that are aligned flat against the stems giving the plant a strange skeletal and ghost-like presence that is particularly appropriate in arid plantings where is combines well with desert plants. Its round open textural shape often gives it the appearance of a silvery tumbleweed. In late spiring and summer it rewards with a mass of silver button-like buds that open to small speherical racemes of yellow flowers that have a simple yet sculptural beauty. It prefers an alkaline and well-drained soil and is often found in association with limestone and calcareous scree.

Leucophyta brownii is a relatively familiar landscape plant in New Zealand, Australia and California where it tolerates salt, severe winds, drought and mild frosts but its sensitivity to hard frosts has restricted its use somewhat in the UK and northern Europe. In many UK conditions it is not always completely hardy and in more northerly and exposed situations it will need winter protection with several layers of heavy grade horticultural fleece during the worst of the winter weather. In London microclimates, sheltered aspects, southern courtyards and maritime locations along the south and southwest coast it will do much better. For those of you blessed with a benign winter and can give it the well-drained substrate it needs, this is an ideal plant to experiment with.