Garrya
Garrya is a genus of flowering plants in the family Garryaceae native to Mexico, the western United States, Central America and the Greater Antilles. Common names include silk tassel and tassel bush.
They are evergreen dioecious wind-pollinated shrubs growing to tall. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, and are simple, leathery, dark green to gray-green, ovate, long, with an entire margin and a short petiole. The flowers are gray-green catkins, short and spreading when first produced in late summer; the male catkins becoming long and pendulous in late winter when shedding pollen; the female catkins usually a little shorter and less pendulous. The fruit is a round dry berry containing two seeds.
Species
Garrya buxifolia – dwarf silktassel; western Oregon, northern CaliforniaGarrya congdonii – chaparral silktassel; CaliforniaGarrya corvorum – GuatemalaGarrya elliptica – coast silktassel, wavyleaf silktassel; western Oregon, western CaliforniaGarrya fadyenii – Fadyen's silktassel; Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola; naturalised in Leeward IslandsGarrya flavescens – ashy silktassel; California and Baja California, northeast to Utah and New MexicoGarrya fremontii – bearbrush silktassel; southern Washington, Oregon, California, northwestern NevadaGarrya glaberrima – Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo LeónGarrya goldmannii – southeastern New Mexico, southwestern Texas, and northeastern Mexico Garrya grisea – Baja CaliforniaGarrya laurifolia – laurelleaf silktassel; widespread from Chihuahua and Tamaulipas south to PanamaGarrya lindheimeri – southwestern Texas and northeastern MexicoGarrya longifolia – Durango, Jalisco, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Morelos, Mexico State, Distrito Federal de MéxicoGarrya mexicana – southern Nuevo LeónGarrya ovata – eggleaf silktassel; New Mexico, Texas, Chihuahua, OaxacaGarrya salicifolia – willowleaf silktassel; Baja California, Baja California SurGarrya veatchii – canyon silktassel; California, Baja CaliforniaGarrya wrightii – Wright's silktassel; Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, Coahuila
Cultivation and uses
Some species, notably Garrya elliptica, are widely cultivated in gardens for their foliage and the catkins produced in late winter. They are frequently grown against a wall, or as a windbreak in coastal areas. Male plants are more widely grown, as their catkins are longer and more attractive; one such cultivar, G. elliptica 'James Roof', has catkins up to long. The hybrids G. × issaquahensis and G. × thuretii have been bred for garden planting.