Coast Silk Tassel (Garrya elliptica) Login         


        Description
  • Height 7 - 20 ft.
  • CA Bloom Dec - Jan
  • Leaves are leathery, opposite, evergreen, and have wavy margins.
  • Leaves are shiny on the top, pale and fuzzy underneath.
  • Each individual has either male or female flowers but not both.
  • CA native. Endemic to the California Floristic Province.
  • AKA Silk Tassel, Silktassel, Coast Silktassel, Wavyleaf Silktassel
  • Silk Tassel Family (Garryaceae)



These female catkins are thicker and shorter than the male version.



Here are male catkins, cascading down like a silk tassel, sometimes 8" long.


Silk Tassel grows to the size of a small tree but has so many branches that it sometimes looks like a big shrub.

   Photo Gallery (58 ) click any picture to enlarge
    

Coast Silk Tassel has beautiful chains of flowers that look like a silk tassel. The leaves are roughly elliptic, reflecting the species name [i]ell ...
Leaves have wavy edges, a distinguishing characteristic for this species. The top surface is dark green, waxy and shiny. The bottom surface is p ...
Leaves feel leathery, and the edges often curl under. They grow to 2 or 3 inches long. The thick leaves taste bitter and are not often grazed by ...
This shows over a dozen male [[catkins]], in various stages of development. They hang from the end of branches, and can grow to 8 inches long.
Here are mature male flowers, starting to release their pollen. They're arranged on a chain of fused purple-tipped [[bracts]] with several male f ...
The male [[catkin]] is made up of a central stalk that has hairy [[bracts]] growing each 1/4" or so. Several male flowers grow out from under eac ...