The Lipstick Tree

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to call this the lipstick tree. As we waited for my mom to work out at the gym, there was one of these outside and we could spent a good hour picking one or two of the red, bristly blossoms and slowly dissecting it. My favorite were always the unbloomed buds because they provided more material for slowly picking apart.

At the time, we thought we were bored. Little did I know that even to this day, when I saw one of these trees that was all I would be able to think about. A lazy early evening with the lipstick tree.