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Crotalaria agatiflora (Canary Bird Bush) - An evergreen shrub characterized by flowers that look like a family of green canaries perching on a branch. With ample water and room this shrub can grow to 12 feet tall by an equal width but is more often seen much smaller; when grown without summer irrigation is often only 4 to 5 feet tall. It has gray-green trifoliate leaves with each of the elliptic leaflets 1 to 3 inches long. In spring until fall appear the terminal inflorescences, sometimes nearly two feet long, bearing 1 ½ to 2-inch-long flowers with chartreuse colored petals and gray-purple calyces that really do look birds attached to the stem by their beaks. Flowers are followed by pea pod fruits with loose seeds that rattle in the wind or when shaken.
Plant in full sun or part shade, water regularly to very little. Tips freeze at around 27° F but the woody parts are hardy to short duration temperatures down to 20-25 degrees F. Flowering diminishes in hot inland valleys in summer but resumes in fall. Its rangy open habit can be contained and neatened by pruning one or more times during the warmer months and this also encourages re-bloom.
Crotalaria agatiflora is native to tropical eastern Africa from southern Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. The name derives from the Latin word 'crotalus' (which originated from the Greek word 'krotalon') which means "rattle" or "castanet" for the seed pods which rattle in the wind when dry. This root word is also used for genus name Crotalus for rattlesnakes. The specific epithet comes from the flowers resemblance to a plant once called Agati grandiflora, that is now Sesbania grandiflora. Besides Canary Bird Bush, other common names include Bird Flower, Queensland Birdflower (so called in Australia where it is not native), Rattlebox or Rattlepod. We have grown this interesting and attractive plant off and on since 1983. We have seen Crotalaria retusa, a plant commonly called Rattleweed, being sold in California incorrectly listed as Crotalaria agatiflora. Crotalaria retusa is an annual or short-lived perennial plant from Australia that has become a troublesome weed in many parts of the world. It is a smaller plant than Crotalaria agatiflora with darker green foliage and smaller yellow flowers.
The information displayed on this page about Crotalaria agatiflora is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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