Amazing trees 5.1.2011

I came across so much sadness  today that I thought I’d do a quick escapist post about Random Tree Stuff.

A friend asked me to identify a eucalypt and I wondered who she had me confused with. A year ago I didn’t even know there were eucalypts, corymbias and angophorae. I didn’t know there were 750-900 different types (?species). Who knew that to identify them you need to be able to use the lingo about what bark looks like, whether the bark stays on or falls off, whether it comes off in long or short strips, the type of green in the leaves, the placement of leaves in relation to each other, the appearance of juvenile versus mature leaves – etc etc. Golly gosh.

So I took the modern person’s way out and googled eucalypt identification – and was not much further ahead. The Australian National Herbarium offers a plant identification service which is free for non-commercial enquiries. There”s a webguide for eucalypts at  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/PlantNet/Euc/ident.html which makes it obvious how much you need to know to find out something you don’t know. If you know what I mean. After all, a wise person knows what s/he doesn’t know and you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. (Edited 6.1.2011: I was tired…)

Looking at eucalypt images on google I found a lovely website called Pope’s trees.  Mr Pope is a volunteer tree warden in Surrey. (We need tree wardens here in Newcastle to look after our street trees since we have now changed our focus from removing certain large trees to tree preservation – as of the council resolution taken in December.) There are some stunning photos of veteran trees on this page and the eucalypt on page 5  is like none I’ve ever seen. 

There’s a 3 minute YouTube video here about Surrey tree wardens and here is their website. I love the info telling us that oak trees become ancient at 400 years of age and that they can last 1000 years. The shot of community members being taught how to be tree wardens is inspiring.

The Veteran Tree Group Australia website has some fantastic photos, and the story about the work at Townsville Railway station is amazing. Sean Freeman’s photo gallery of huge trees were the first tree shots that made me realise that what looked like near-dead specimens were things of wonder.  

And a tiny thing about Lambton Pool that I wrote about recently – who said whining giving feedback is pointless? The day after I Gave Feedback about the lane dividers there was more room for us plebs and the diving tower was open. I was probably just there on a  bad day. Glad I was wrong.

Gotta go. Home

Tags: Australian National Herbarium, eucalypts, Lambton Pool, Pope's trees, Sean Freeman, Surrey tree wardens, tree identification, tree wardens, Veteran tree Group, YouTube