Re: Ficus macrophylla
- Subject: Re: Ficus macrophylla
- From: J* D*
- Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 09:45:35 -0700 (PDT)
Ficus macrophylla appears to have significant drought
tolerance in San Francisco as well, with old trees
scattered through areas built in the early 20th
century having surely endured watering neglect for
decades at a time. It appears to have been an
Edwardian-era favorite. I know of one unirrigated tree
that persists in competition with Acacia melanoxylon,
Eucalyptus globulus and other aggressive trees.
Now, *I'd* like to get my hands on Ficus macrophylla
ssp. columnaris - the ones I've seen at Huntington
Gardens in Southern California are majestic.
-Jason Dewees
San Francisco, California
--- Tony Rodd <tonyrodd@isp.net.au> wrote:
> More on the subject from Sydney:
>
> B. acerifolius extends up the east coast of
> Australia from about 100 miles S of Sydney to maybe
> 200 miles N of Brisbane, then in more interrupted
> occurrences well into the tropics. As far as I know
> it's confined to true rainforest as we use the term
> in Australia, i.e. forest of continuous canopy, many
> tree species (except at highest altitudes and
> latitudes), no eucalypts, and lianes and epiphytes
> abundant. At the southern end of this range rainfall
> is not strongly seasonal, though has a modest peak
> in early autumn, and is mostly 40-60 in/yr where
> such rainforests occur. Going north toward the
> tropics rainfall becomes much more summer-dominant
> and the dry season is quite severe, but I think B.
> acerifolius sticks to the wetter patches on the
> coastal escarpment that catch moist ocean air --
> other Brachychiton spp. take its place in more
> monsoonal areas, e.g. B. discolor, B. australis, B.
> rupestris, and members of the B. paradoxus group
> when you get to the far north.
>
> There is a gap in the distribution of B. acerifolius
> from about 50 miles north of Sydney to about 50
> miles south, which seems to correspond with the
> infertile sandstone and shale soils of the Sydney
> region. Further south it occurs mainly on basalt
> soils. Distributions of Ficus macrophylla and the
> palm Archontophoenix cunninghamiana show a similar
> gap.
>
> Interesting about this species doing well in San
> Diego with 20 in rainfall -- the same goes for Ficus
> macrophylla, doesn't it? and that grows in much the
> same rainforests here as B. acerifolius. Can they
> thrive without any irrigation?
>
> In NSW it's one of our very few deciduous rainforest
> trees though unlike our famous Red Cedar (Toona
> ciliata), which is leafless in winter, it is
> leafless through spring and a little into summer.
> But it can be erratic and some trees do not lose
> their leaves, or lose them only on part of the
> canopy. As an ornamental in Sydney it's renowned for
> the unreliability of its flowering. This generally
> correlates strongly with leaflessness, and often you
> will only get flowers on the leafless part of a
> tree's canopy. From about the 1930s to the 50s there
> was a fad for mixing them with jacarandas in streets
> and parks here as the flowering seasons usually
> overlap and people loved the color combination, but
> in the end they found the Brachychiton could not be
> relied on (jacarandas are very reliable and are
> spectacular in Sydney). Incidentally, there are
> hybrids occasionally grown here, of B. acerifolius x
> B. populneus and B. acerifolius x B. discolor, but
> they are not nearly as showy and often flower very
> poorly.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: RStarkeson@jschlesinger.com
> To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
> Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 11:43 PM
> Subject: Re: Brachychiton acerifolius
>
>
> Thanks for reminding me, Nan, of a tree I had
> forgotten I was interested in -Now I am curious as
> to its water wants. TOny puts it in New South Wales
> rainforest (seasonal rains with a dry period?) and
> Nan finds it in San Diego (which gets less than 20"
> of rain in a year). Does it want
> lots/regular/occasional water in San Diego? What
> are the seasonal periods of rain in the NSW
> rainforest where it grow naturally?
>
> Richard Starkeson
> Berkeley, California
>
> They are native in coastal New South Wales .
> . . . always in dense rainforest
>
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