Full Sun
Medium
Halleria lucida is tough and easy to grow, and thrives under many different conditions. It is fast growing, and performs best in well-drained nutrient-rich loam with water provided all year round although it tolerates periods of drought. It is relatively hardy to frost (zone 9: minimum -7 oC/ 20 oF) but requires protection when young. Halleria lucida makes a shapely specimen tree for the smaller garden, and looks at home in the larger landscape, where it can also be planted in groups. It can be used to provide shade, or can itself be planted in shade as an under-storey tree. It can also be used in the fynbos garden. It is suitable for use as an informal hedge, and can be planted in a large container. It is also one of the best bird attracting trees. With Halleria lucida in your garden, the nectar-feeding sunbirds will be one of your most frequent visitors, and the berries will attract fruit-eating birds.
Halleria lucida is easily propagated by seed, and cuttings. It can also be propagated by truncheon cuttings or layering and transplants readily. Young plants may flower for the first time in their second year.Seed is best sown in spring to mid-summer (September to December) or in autumn (March to May), in a standard well-drained seedling mix and covered lightly with coarse sand or milled bark. The trays can be placed over bottom heat of 25 oC although this is not essential for germination to occur. Seed should germinate within 6 weeks. Seedlings can be transplanted as soon as they are large enough to handle.
Softwood or herbaceous cuttings, or heel cuttings should be taken from actively growing shoots in spring to early summer (September to November) or in autumn (March to May), treated with a rooting hormone and placed in a propagator with intermittent mist and bottom heat of 28 oC. Rooting should occur within 6 weeks, and the newly rooted cuttings require a weaning period of 1 month.
Ensure that temperatures are mild and all chance of frost has passed before planting out, as Tree fuchsia is a hardy plant.These estimates for how long Tree fuchsia takes to sprout, grow and harvest are from real observations from real gardeners, right around the world.
Average days | Min days | Max days (0)
Average days | Min days | Max days (0)
Average days | Min days | Max days (0)
The genus Halleria is named after Albrecht von Haller (1708-77), professor of botany at Gottingen. It is a small genus of ten species that occur in Yemen, Madagascar and Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape peninsula. There are three species in southern Africa that are widespread in all regions and countries except for the Northern Cape and Namibia. The other two species are Halleria elliptica and Halleria ovata. The specific name lucida is Latin for shining/shiny and refers to the foliage. The derivation of the common name notsung is not entirely clear. It could be derived from the original Khoi name. Marloth thought that it was derived from the name nutzeng meaning usufruct (the right of temporary possession of what is another’s on condition that such possession causes no damage to it) given to it by early German foresters employed at the Cape, where these foresters had free use of the wood and fruits without need for a permit. The name tree fuchsia was acquired because of its fuchsia-like flowers. It has also been known as the white olive / witolienhout / witolyfhout as the quality of its timber is suggestive of that of the olive.
The Zulu nation has a strong belief in traditional medicine and they use Halleria lucida for skin and ear complaints. Dry leaves are soaked in water and squeezed into the ear to relieve earache. This tree is also considered to be a charm against evil. The twigs are burnt when offering sacrifices to the ancestral spirits. The plants are set alight each year, the ashes mixed with crocodile fat and this mixture is smeared onto cuttings of Rhamnus prinoides which are then driven into the ground around the village to protect the community from wizardry and lightning. The wood can also be used to start a fire by friction. Halleria lucida timber is light coloured tinged with yellow, hard, heavy and strong, well suited to carpentry, but is not much used because the pieces are small. It was once valued for wagon poles, tools and spear shafts.
Notsung (afrikaans), Umbinza (xhosa)