Akeake....

.....looking lovely with it's red flowers and purple foliage.

Dodonaea viscosa Purpurea is a New Zealand native grown in shrublands, coastal and lowland forest. It has distinctive reddish-brown bark, purple leaves which are long, thin and slightly pointed. The flowers are nestled in clusters at the end of the branches. And it flowers in summer and around Christmas.

So far I've discovered red flowering Pohutukawa, red flowing Flax flowers called Harakeke and now purple Akeake, all flowering during Christmas.

A gloomy sky and some rain, we really are having an unsettled summer weather wise.