Gums and a token Banyan

  

I started observing the gum trees much closer after visiting the great Tasmin forests and Hans Heysen's Cedars, home and studio. He is well known in AU as "the gum tree man". His paintings are often quiet and calming and obvious that  trees are his main focus. So I have photographed trees lots lately.

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. The Banyan seeds germinate and send down roots towards the ground, which may envelop part of the host tree or building structure, giving banyans the casual name of "strangler fig". The "strangling" growth habit is found in a number of tropical forest species.

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The gum tree has been used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the rise of malaria. Sometimes they are regarded for their beneficial economic impact but are increasingly being criticised for being  water suckers. 

An attempt is being made  to produce power from the Mallee wood and leaves. There is great hope here that mass plantings of the trees will begin to mitigate global warming. By 2020 plantations in AU should be tripled to 3 million hectares. 30 million hectares of gum trees planted today would porduce enough methanol and ethonal in 50 year to fuel AU's vehicles. 

Strange, but most dense forests here seem very light (This picture was from a night walk). Even the rain forests are still quite sunny compared to say Costa Rica. Although this night photo seems quite eerie the ghost gum is the friendliest tree ever. 

The Spotted Gum tree is found close to the sea.  You can't depend on the rings of a swamp gum to tell its age. The trees can produce "false rings" when good growing conditions occur in separate seasons within the same year.

The sap that oozes from an injured gum tree is called Kino.
It is used as a tannin to tan leather. Perhaps I can re-color
my couch with it. 

The Swamp Gum in Mount Field National Park , Eucalyptus regnans, is the tallest flowering plant on Earth. We walked the Tall Trees circuit which took us through a spectacular forest of these giants, the largest of which were growing when Abel Tasman first sighted Tasmania in 1642, and which are taller than the Casino in Hobart.

During the walk through the Garden of Unearthly Delights is when I decided that my favourite tree in Australia is the Ghost Gum. This tree is wonderful for several reasons; first, it glows in the dark. It is intelligent enough to calculate how much water it will have for a season and if it will not have enough, it will sacrifice outer branches. It produces a white powder when rubbed onto skin it contains zinc that the Aboriginals used as a natural sunscreen. The leaves of the tree make a great bandaid since the eucalyptus oil gives the leaf an anteseptic quality. Not only a good bandaid, but music can be made by blowing on a gum leaf. I understand that there are even gum leaf playing competitions. I must catch one before coming home. 

     Off to the Botanic Gardens with the class on Wednesday. Perhaps I will identify the mystery trunks. 

So now I have fed the chooks and have  dobbed on quite enough. Perhaps no one really gives a bugger Greetings from the Lucky Country. PL