Hardiness zones
Sunset 12-24
USDA 9-11
Landscape Use: Strong vertical, commercial to large residential, mesic, tropical or alpine character, popular for shade in parks
Form & Character: Evergreen tree, pendulous, upright and conical when young to more spreading with age
Growth Habit: Vigorously upright to 60', pyramidal when young but spreading with age. Main Trunk generally smooth and gray except where heat stressed, broadest at base, branches heavy and extending upwards, sometimes perpendicular.
Foliage/texture: Foliage generally light green and ovate and entire (aspen like) to 3-5 lobed (turkey track), mostly 3" long or less, medium texture
Flowers & fruits: Clusters of bell shaped, yellow-green flowers with yellowish red inside on short, auxiliary panicles (on a stalk), May and June, hard woody canoe-shaped fruits, messy
Seasonal color: None
Temperature: Tolerant
Light: Full sun, though hot summer western sun can scald the trunk.
Soil: Shows interveinal chlorosis in soils with pH above 8.0
Watering: Irrigate deeply at least twice a month during summer for best results, sometimes used as lawn tree
Pruning: Elevate canopy base, but avoid western sun exposure on main trunk (sunscald time)
Propagation: Seed; majority of seed lot will germinate with turkey track (3-5 lobed) leaf form and minority will have aspen like foliage (ovate).
Disease and pests: Bottle tree is highly susceptible to Phymatotrichopsis (common name, Texas root rot) in former agricultural soils in the Phoenix area. Local Texas root rot symptoms include abrupt leaf browning and tree death usually sometime during July to October (mostly September after soil temperatures exceed 80oF).
Additional comments: Bottle tree was widely planted in Phoenix in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of dominant mesic and oasis landscape design themes. Bottle tree fruit pods are resistant to decay, pose
a litter problem and can injure bare foot wanderers and reel lawn mowers. Young bottle trees are subject to wind
throw, and are subject to root deformation problems if grown in nursery
containers. Root deformation can predispose the a bottel tree tree to catastrophic blow over throw during summer monsoons.
Flame Tree (B. acerifolius) is somewhat taller with red flowers.
Vandalism is a problem in dense urban areas because bottle tree has such a smooth trunk.
