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A mix of trees that caught my eye yesterday

Posted: September 9th, 2015, 11:42 am
by Redsonic
Three interesting trees within stone's throw of each other when I was walking the dog yesterday. Thought I would share:

Benji fig strangling a paperbark, with shari:

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Casuarina (probably Allocasuarina littoralis) on a lean:

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Interesting bark on a eucalyptus:

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Re: A mix of trees that caught my eye yesterday

Posted: September 9th, 2015, 12:17 pm
by Naimul
hah, would have never have thought a benjamina to get aggressive and strangle another tree :lol:

Re: A mix of trees that caught my eye yesterday

Posted: September 9th, 2015, 4:10 pm
by Redsonic
Naimul wrote:hah, would have never have thought a benjamina to get aggressive and strangle another tree :lol:
Yep, those Benjis know how to get a free ride to the canopy ;) There are another 3 or 4 in that general area, growing in tree forks.
More of interest to me was that a paperbark had succumbed (never seen one in a paperbark before), and the shari. I wonder if the shari was caused by the council slasher scraping by? I haven't seen too many shari in the mature figs around my area; you generally see a small, circular scar where a branch was lopped/lost, but not usually a linear wound. Surface roots, on the other hand are covered in wounds from the council slashers.
I have been wondering about what resistance trees have to epiphytic plants. I had been thinking that paperbarks shed their bark too often for epiphytes to take hold, until I saw this one. There is a Crepe Myrtle near my home that has been colonised by no fewer than 3 species of epiphytes. I think being deciduous leaves them open to hitchhikers that can grow fast in Winter.

Here is a very moth eaten Schefflera actinophylla growing in the Crepe Myrtle and the red arrow points to a ficus:

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Gotta love the Crepe Myrtle trunk!