Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia - Red Bopple Nut
Family: Proteaceae

Vulnerable, narrow tree to 12m, usually unbranched.
Metre long leaves alternate, stiff, deeply lobed with prickly toothed margins make this tree unmistakeable.
Each plant is a collection of slender stems of various heights up to 12m with a crown of leaves at the summit and a pile of dead yellow leaves at the summit and a pile of dead leaves at the base.
New growth is deep shiny red.
Long pendulous racemes of maroon and cream flowers with a warm honey scent are present most of the year and sometimes go on to produce strings of brilliant red semi-woody oval fruits.
Found only in subtropical rainforest around the Mt Warning caldera.

Cultivation
Very striking at all stages.
Difficulty in raising seedlings which germinate rapidly then die within months.
Seed is best planted directly where it is to grow and given copious leaf litter as well as some soil from the base of a parent Hicksbeachia.

Planting
21.03.18 x6
09.03.21 x5