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DownloadTaxodium distichum
As autumn approaches watch for these stunning trees at Lake Te Ko Utu, best viewed from the Camellia Walk above the lake. They are also lovely in spring when their new ferny foliage is a pale green, for, like the larch and the dawn redwood, they are deciduous conifers. Native to North America, they are the tallest conifers of the eastern border, dominating the swamps of Florida where they become festooned with Spanish moss as they age, but they are able to grow also in the subarctic winters of Ottawa, Canada.
Their chief desire is for a warm summer. They are long-lived trees, the oldest existing one being almost 1700 years.
To appreciate their most peculiar feature you must be standing at the fluted and flaring base which gives the tree stability in wet ground, for here you can see the unique ‘knees’ that grow up from their roots when they are near water. Once thought to perhaps provide air to the roots when submerged in water, these knees actually appear to have no means of performing this function; they are ‘just there’ like a ‘village of ant-hills’ to quote Hugh Johnson.
The wood is used for making shingles and panelling, and is highly valued for its water-resistance. Like the kauri in New Zealand, prehistoric taxodium is ‘mined’ from swamps in the south-eastern USA. In 2012 divers discovered a submerged forest of the species off the coast of Alabama. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the trees were growing more than 50,000 years ago, probably in the early glacial period of the last Ice Age.
Hall St, the most beautiful street in Cambridge.
The London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia), is the quintessential urban tree that, along with the English oak, was the basis for early town planting in Cambridge. A hybrid of the Eastern plane of Turkey and Greece and the western plane of the Americas, its great attractions are fourfold: in autumn the soft yellow of its leaves, in winter the graceful arching tracery of its weeping twigs, the year-round beauty of its marbled bark, and the power of its form to ‘save town architecture from itself’. As Hugh Johnson writes, ‘streets where it is allowed to fulfil itself, as it is in countless Provencal villages, are among the most stately, be the houses mere hovels.’
This is the kind of stunning streetscape that gives Cambridge its reputation as Town of Trees, but for how much longer? As the population grows rapidly and developers grind out every last cent from their financial investment by cramming houses on to tiny sections incapable of accommodating even a modest-sized shade tree, and even the streets are too narrow for a liquidamber or claret ash, the town is in danger of becoming the Town of Shrubs and Brown Wooden Fences. But what about the social, health and environmental investment?
Long after the developers have gone, residents have to live with the results of their miserly short-sightedness. It is well past time that Council came up with a solution to this dilemma. We need a policy and planning rules that provides for at least all playgrounds, all roundabouts and all arterial routes through subdivisions to incorporate large trees such as these to provide these wonderful streetscapes for future generations. Furthermore, all greenfields developments should be obliged to retain all mature trees. This would be a start, but it is time for the Cambridge community to have serious conversations about these matters and bring pressure to bear on Council. They are supposed to represent residents, not developers.
Quercus rubra
Not to be confused with Q. robur, the common English oak, this handsome, stately tree is a native of eastern and central North America and can be found from Nova Scotia to Louisiana and as far west as Oklahoma. It is widely considered a national treasure in the USA and is the State tree of New Jersey.
Growing in the forests of North America, it can reach a height of more than 40 metres and may live 500 years. It is tolerant of salt and air pollution and relatively tolerant of soil compaction which makes it suitable for street and park planting, although in this situation it seldom grows as high but is valued for its rich autumn colour. Also, since the 19th century Q. rubra has been used in forest plantings in Europe, where it may take 20 years to produce flowers and another 20 before it produces a good crop of acorns. It has large leaves whose lobes terminate with bristle-pointed teeth, and on young trees the bark is silver-grey and smooth, but when mature red oak can be distinguished from other oaks by the shiny stripe down the centre of its bark ridges.
Q. rubra is one of the most important oaks in the USA for timber production, its reddish-brown wood is valued for flooring, veneer, interior trim and furniture. The wood has a tendency to absorb moisture making it unsuitable for boatbuilding and exterior trim, but it is nevertheless sometimes used for fence posts and railroad ties.
Araucaria heterophylla/excelsa
This is the beauty of the Araucaria family. A group of trees that encircle the Pacific Ocean, they include 13 different Pacific Island members of the genus, as well as the Chilean monkey puzzle, the Queensland bunya bunya pine, the Chinese and Japanese Cryptomerias, and several Tasmanian species, all of which are genealogically related to the giant sequoia of the western USA! All of them share a somewhat reptilian appearance with their bright green scaly leaves.
Standing alone in a garden, these sorts of trees often look stiff and out of place, whereas planted in clumps (or in their naturally occurring forests) they are magnificent. The monkey puzzle was, for a time, the darling of late Victorian England where it was often combined with ‘bogus-rustic arbours and geometrical beds of scarlet salvias.’ At much the same time in the USA, Brazil, Peru, and British colonies of the South Pacific the Norfolk pine, growing with the ‘hypnotic symmetry of a paper cut-out,’ was a favourite for the regimented planting of coastal esplanades. In New Zealand, Napier’s Marine Parade comes to mind and in Australia there is a magnificent example many kilometres long in the southwest town of Esperance. In less friendly climes it is grown as a house plant.
Few of the Araucaria family produce useful wood with the exception of the Brazilian Pirana pine, which makes excellent fine-textured timber for interior joinery and furniture. The Norfolk pine is good for woodturning and plywood. In 1774 when Captain Cook first saw the stands of Norfolk pine forest he hoped that it would be the answer to the British navy’s insatiable need for masts and spars. During the 17th and 18th centuries a cardinal point of British foreign policy was the expensive business of keeping the Baltic Sea open for the timber trade. An act was passed in 1704 to encourage the colonial trade in spars to make England independent of the Baltic. However it was soon found that Norfolk pine was not sufficiently resilient for the purpose, although our New Zealand kauri proved (unfortunately) to be a good candidate.
A marvel is occurring in the Norfolk Pine near the Rose Garden in Thornton Road. It has become a veritable apartment block for sparrows; almost every branch has one if not two nests, with young birds shouting for food and parent birds coming and going constantly. Stand beneath its branches for a few minutes and witness what is happening up there.
This is not a true pine but a member of the genus Araucaria found across the South Pacific. It has squat, globose cones about 12 cm long and 14 in diameter (shown), which take 18 months to mature, releasing nut-like edible seeds. The Norfolk Pine is endemic to Norfolk Island, but land development means that even here it is now found mainly in the National Park. However it is widely planted around the world in places with a Mediterranean climate. Enjoying deep sand and tolerant of salt and wind, it is popular in coastal situations like Marine Parade, Napier, or the Esplanades of Busselton and Esperance in southern Western Australia. The most northerly specimen is probably on the island of Valentia off the southwest coast of Ireland. In Europe and North America it is usually grown as an indoor plant, and often used as a Christmas tree due to its symmetrical shape.
Its branches arise slightly obliquely from the trunk in regular whorls of five, forming ‘floors’. From each main branch the branchlets curve upwards like fingers, creating the perfect place for birds to nest (see picture). Indeed in Australia there is a gull which does not even bother to build a nest but lays its egg directly on the branch - a Partridge in a Pear Tree?
Chinese Wonder Tree
Bringing a splash of colour to our streets and gardens in winter, the Idesia originates in East Asia. It is a deciduous flowering plant, a member of the Salicaceae or willow family, growing to a height of about 25 metres. The flowers occur in panicles up to 30 cm long and are small, yellowish-green and truly insignificant. Male and female flowers occur on separate trees and the female flowers only are fragrant. Its large heart-shaped leaves turn a light yellow colour in autumn, but the spectacular drupes of bright red berries that adorn the female tree in winter are without doubt its most spectacular feature. This is shown to good effect on this Idesia outside the Cambridge Tree Trust depot in Thornton Road.
Although some sources claim the berries are unattractive to birds, they are apparently quite edible. Tree Trust members have observed with delight that in late winter the native pigeon (keruru) sometimes feed happily on the berries of the Idesia near the Tree Trust depot. Each berry has several brown seeds and these are usually spread by birds. The wood of the Idesia does not seem to have any material or medicinal uses.
The Cambridge Tree Trust was registered with the Charities Commission as a Charitable Entity under the Charities Act 2005 on 16 August 2007. Registration No: CC10859