EUCALYPTUS TREES 2
I have the ability to recognize and name the origin of many of the mature trees that I see in my travels. This talent became obvious when undertaking a day tour with Eberhard through Los Angeles in 1990. Streets were frequently planted with just one species like Camphor Laurels or Liquidambars. In the garden of a house, formerly owned by Jane Mansefield, I spotted a beautiful specimen of the Bunya Pine Araucaria bidwillii. The tour guide must have overheard my quiet comments to Eberhard, because as the bus was driving down a boulevard, he asked me the name of the trees lining the road. I instantly responded, much to his surprise, “Canary Island Palms.” It didn’t surprise me that I could name the trees as the climate of Los Angeles and southern Queensland are similar and I was familiar with all the trees I saw that day.
I tell my friends that I retreat to my garden to recharge my batteries. In the same way I like to travel once a year overseas to allow my mind to relax from the pressures of life. My brain can then absorb and evaluate what I am seeing.
I particularly like to observe trees and their relationship with the environment around them. It was only when I began to travel overseas that I realized how silent were the forests of China, north America and Europe. Not only Australian forests, but the whole of Australia, including our cities are filled with the calls of a vast number of different bird species. We don’t just have the sparrows and pigeons of the northern hemisphere in our cities and towns – many Australian birds have adapted to city life, partly because Australian trees and shrubs have been planted in suburban gardens.
Hong Kong eucalyptus
When I saw this eucalyptus tree in the Kowloon Walled City Park - once a lawless, Hong Kong high-rise slum which was transformed into an award winning park in 1995, I recognized it as a relatively young specimen of a tree that I know by its local name as a Chinchilla White Gum. Carol, my eldest daughter, who accompanied me on this trip to Hong Kong lives in the town of Chinchilla, Queensland. This tree, like most Australian eucalyptus, has the ability to drop off lower limbs each year and concentrate its growth ever higher.
I recently visited Dalby, a large town established on the treeless plains of the Darling Downs. When my parents moved in 1944 to a farm in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains, named because of the Bunya Pine trees growing on the mountains, Dalby became our main business center. In 1972 with my husband and children I moved to live in Dalby. In 1986 when my first marriage ended I moved to Toowoomba. After marrying Eberhard Helwig I again moved, this time to the Granite Belt where Eberhard and I established Das Helwig Haus B&B.
When Eberhard and I returned to Dalby three weeks ago we stayed two nights with friends, Meg and Peter Stevenson, mentioned in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. Seeking a little solitude, I walked alone through the suburban streets of Dalby, photographing the eucalyptus trees.
Dalby example of a Chinchilla White Gum.
Our friends, Meg and Peter, live a couple of houses back from this view, but that extremely straight and tall example of a Chinchilla White Gum is in their garden. When they bought their Dalby home in the 1970’s the garden was already planted with Australian eucalyptus trees.
Remember, these homes were built on the black soil, treeless plains of the Darling Downs. Until the town was established it was only along the slow, winding route of the Condamine River and other tributaries that the river gums, a common name for a form of eucalyptus tree, grew.
For many years a Queensland State Forestry Nursery in Dalby provided inexpensive Australian shrubs and trees at a time when Australians were encouraged to plant indigenous trees. I can honestly say that although I planted other Australian trees in my Dalby garden, I never planted any eucalyptus trees. The result 30 years later of planting many different varieties of eucalyptus trees in so many gardens became apparent to me on this recent visit.
- The planting of trees unsuitable to house gardens has occurred, like the example of this Chinchilla White Gum which now towers above other trees and the houses of the street where my friends live. Such a tree could be hit by a lightening strike or strong storm winds and fall on surrounding houses,
- A monoculture of eucalyptus trees was created. Whenever a monoculture occurs in agriculture it usually results in a build up of predators.
Three weeks ago as I walked the suburban streets of Dalby I became aware that many of the eucalyptus trees were hosts to the parasite mistletoe, a predator.
Street eucalyptus trees in Dalby.
After taking several photographs I returned to the home of my friends and asked Peter was he concerned about the mistletoe on several of the eucalyptus trees in his garden? Peter replied, “As fast as I cut off one clump of mistletoe, another appears.” He saw it as a hopeless task to contend with the mistletoe.
Dalby eucalyptus trees
A monoculture of eucalyptus trees, even though they are of different species, has been created in the gardens of Dalby. Australia possesses a natural predator of eucalyptus trees which I believe will destroy these trees over the next 30 years. The green clumps hanging from the trees in these photographs are the parasite plant called mistletoe. The only State in Australia which does not have mistletoe is Tasmania.
The seeds of the mistletoe are eaten by the Australian bird, appropriately called the Mistletoebird. It is probably more common than realized because it keeps mainly out of sight, frequenting dense foliage and flying high over tree tops.
*Page 242 of Every Australian Bird Illustrated
The seeds pass through the bird and in sticky faeces are deposited on the branches of eucalyptus trees, where the seed produces roots and as a parasite plant grows on the sap of the parent tree. Many seeds of mistletoe will be spread from this plant to other branches of the tree until enough clumps form to kill the host tree.
The residents of Dalby have provided the environment for the Mistletoebird to thrive – food and nesting sites. The result is the eucalyptus trees in the gardens of Dalby are now infested with a parasite which will kill those trees.
Dying eucalyptus tree
Meanwhile the same sight may be seen along many Australian roads. Above is a view of a dying eucalyptus tree as it struggles to feed the parasitic mistletoe clumps.
Mistletoe in trees beside the road.
These roadside trees are typical of the saplings that grow thickly on road verges. They too are being slowly killed by the parasitic mistletoe plants.
Note in the next photo how mistletoe has already killed its host tree.
Dead eucalyptus tree.
I wrote last week about how I believed the European bee, as a feral insect, had colonized the hollow limbs of aged eucalyptus trees. It had then pollinated all the blossom of the eucalyptus trees. A century later much of Australia is losing grassland each year to what are euphemistically called ‘woody weeds’ as the eucalyptus trees spread across the hillsides.
I drew the conclusion that these thickets of young eucalyptus trees were largely responsible for the increasing severity of Australian bushfires.
I stated my belief that young eucalyptus trees on the hillside of the the valleys containing city reservoirs were preventing rainwater runoff reaching the reservoirs.
Am I a voice crying in the wilderness? Does no one else see these problems caused by the proliferation of eucalyptus trees?
What about the mistletoe? Does anyone else see the spread of this parasite? What will be the situation in Dalby in another thirty years, or after another century in Australian wilderness regions?
Book cover
Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.
This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.
To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au
Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=
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