Red Bottlebrush Flowers beside a Fence

The red bristles on a bottlebrush aren't petals. Each spike is a crowd of small flowers with tiny petals that drop early. What's left showing are their long stamens, tipped with pollen. The woody capsules farther along the stem can hold their seed for years. In many kinds they open only after a bushfire. Two red spikes lean out over an old gray fence in this bottlebrush jigsaw puzzle. Back home in Australia they're a favorite stop for honeyeaters and lorikeets.