Silver Tree or Silver Leucadendron
Leucadendron argenteum (PROTEACEAE)
Planting and Growing Silver Trees
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow silver tree or silver leucadendron in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, fruit, and nutlike fruit of silver tree or silver leucadendron
- Growing conditions for silver tree or silver leucadendron
- When to plant silver tree or silver leucadendron
- How to plant silver tree or silver leucadendron
- How to prune silver tree or silver leucadendron
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of silver tree or silver leucadendron
- Landscape uses of silver tree or silver leucadendron
- Pest and disease control for silver tree or silver leucadendron
Growing Silver Trees
Several cultivars of medium-growing, short-lived, erect and columnar becoming rounded and branching, dense, evergreen trees, 30–40 ft. (9–12 m) tall and wide, with opposite, silver gray, hairy, leathery, needlelike, lance-shaped, narrow, pointed leaves, 4–6 in. (10–15 cm) long, and gray bark on contorted trunks. Native to South Africa; endangered species.
Common sunshine conebush, Leucadendron adscendens; Piketberg Conebush, Leucadendron discolor; Phillips leucadendron, Leucadendron stokoei; spicy conebush, Leucadendron tinctum; and Du Toit’s Kloof Conebush, Leucadenron daphnoides (formerly Leucadendron venosum) are closely related species with similar care needs.
Silver Tree Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Insignificant grasslike or conelike flowers borne separately on male and female trees, in spring, form nutlike fruit, in autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 8–11. Tender. Best in humid, subtropical or seaside climates.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to damp, well-drained, sandy soil. Fertility: Average–low. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full sun. Space 15–20 ft. (4.5–6 m) apart.
Proper Care
Challenging. Keep moist; allow soil surface to dry between waterings. Avoid fertilizing. Prune, pinch to shape. Propagate by seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, banks, containers, groups, slopes in rock, seaside, tropical gardens. Grown for foliage. Good for cutting. Pest and disease resistant.