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Re: Windbreaks

Barry Garcia wrote:
> 
> Interesting! Ive seen some very tall specimens of Monterey cypress, but
> these were always grown away from the coast and kept out of constant
> winds. Usually the canopies on these are about 1/2 to  2/3 the height
> of the trees. I suppose its because of the small amount of rain here.
> The small area where ive seen them actually native, they are much
> smaller and their branches are much lower to the ground (wider than
> they are tall). They look prettier this way than they do when they get
> tall. They also seem to have a very vivid, bright orange lichen on
> their branches. However the lichen never grows on trees outside their
> native habitat. Actually i have to take back what i said about them not > being good windbreaks, i have seen them used as such but their trunks are much thinner and they dont look as nice to me grown this way. Ive  seen them used as hedges but they get to be VERY tall hedges (up to 30  feet on one hedge). 
> I find it interesting that two of the worlds rarest trees (Naturally)
> are planted so widely!
> I read somewhere the Pinus radiata is the most widely grown pine
> species in the southern hemisphere, where pines are rare (i dont know
> if any pines are native to the southern hemisphere or not).

Pinus radiata certainly is the most important plantation timber in NZ,
covering huge acreages in the central North Island and recently
enthusiasm has started to grow for raising Cupressus macroocarpa for its
timber, which has been shown among other good points to be naturally rot
resistant. Last year I purchased some macrocarpa garden stakes and I
have seen a fence built from it, but it will take a while before much is
available. As Tim Dutton mentioned there is a lot of this species in
farm shelter belts, but it is mostly too knotty and gnarled to be useful
lumber. However, there is a bit of a fashion for using great big knotty
planks to make fantastic wooden seats. They look like somthing out of a
troll's palace.

There are some amazing huge macrocarpa hedges on old farms, which must
be as high as those you mention. How they could have cut them before the
days of mechanisation I cannot imagine.

I don't know of any true pines native to the Southern Hemisphere. In New
Zealand our native gymnosperms belong to three families -Araucariaceae
represented just by the  magnificent Kauri (Agathis australis), the
Cupressaceae (a couple of Cedars (Libocedrus)) and the Podocarpaceae,
which includes all the rest (Podocarpus, Dacrydium and Phyllocladus -
lots of species).

The Kauri forests of northern North Island were extensively plundered
during the last century and only remnants now remain. Although some
replanting has been done it will be a slow process as the originals were
anything up to 1,000 years old.

 The magnificent timber was used mainly in house and boat building. A
good sized-tree could provide enough timber for a dozen houses!

Much timber built into old houses is now being recycled to make upmarket
furniture, carvings etc.

As their growth is usually so slow Kauris are quite popular as garden
and occasionally street trees. They won't outgrow most sites for the
first 100 years or so!!

Moira

Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
"Old" is 10 years older than I am.
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