Re: Eucalyptus Trees: Good or Bad?
sal wrote:
>
> we just had a big Eucalyptus blue gum i think fall over because of the wet
> ground. it was big and boy did it fall. the roots just came out of the
> ground. i have heard this happens a lot. a big big tree for no reason just
> fall out of the ground.. I wonder if Eucalyptus are prone to this?
Under some conditions some species can definitely be unstable. We once
rented a cottage on a Kenya farm and up the side of the road just
outside our place was a whole row (six at least) of large trees which
had all keeled over some time earlier just as you describe. We guessed
there must have been something like an unexpected gale or twister.
We did discover something else about them. We asked the farmer if we
might cut some of the wood for our fire and were puzzled when he
chuckled while saying "help yourself'. Well when we went out with axe
and saw we very soon found out why. They were truely as hard as iron and
we could make no impression on them at all. Apparently they are quite
cuttable while newly fallen but after death sure harden up!.
And apropos of fire risk, which David mentioned. Bush fires are a way of
life for Australian forests, so that many of the trees, including most
gums, are very good survivors. I remember once making a train journey
from Melbourne to Sydney and near the end of our journey we passed
through woodlands which had been burnt a few months previously where
every blackened trunk was bursting forth with vigorous new growth.
As to Anthony's experience of the very small root systems on his
particular gums. I am sure this depends on the species or perhaps more
as Sean suggests on how they were raised, as I have several times here
seen one or another gum planted in a lawn which in summer was surrounded
by a _big_ circle of dried up grass where the greedy spreading roots had
sucked out the moisture. Furthermore they can be as good at blocking
drains as any willow.
I think in any case one cannot just talk of one behavour in respect of
gums. The huge Eucalyptus genus really occupies a unique place in
Australia with its different species filling an immense variety of
niches which in other countries might each have their own special genera
- a sort of all-purpose type of tree. I gather the taxonomists find this
so overwhelming that the are at present working to split it up into
something more normal!!
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
