Lipstick Tree

Common Name: Lipstick Tree, Kissing Plant,
Scientific Name: Bixa orellana
Plant Family: Bixaceae
Light Requirements: Full Sun
Water Demand: Moderate-High

This unusual tropical flowering tree or compact shrub has attractive heart shape leaves and provides some pop of red color. The flowers are not very showy, but the red flamboyant, lychee-like seed-pod that follow are very flashy and beautiful. It earned its “lipstick tree” due to its use as a culinary spice, colorant and and as lipstick or body adornments by the indigenous people.