New Years Day 2009

[Katherine J]

Very nice pics Gerd and David.
Here had been cold and dull and I had been sitting inside and reading Jim Jermyn's Alpine Flowers of Europe.  So no pictures to show.

[Michael J Campbell]

Commander of rescuing force.... Sir Colin Campbell

Maggi,there is a faint resemblance between myself and that chap,the mustache and hair are the same.

[Anthony Darby]

Antony,

To the best of my knowledge the scarlet mistletoe parasitises only beech.

Beech (Fagus sylvaticus) is a fairly common tree hereabouts. I know Evelyn Stevens grows Nothofagus spp. in her woodland plot. NZ has at least three species and I'd certainly like to try the smaller ones. I seem to remember an article in the forum about the amazing colours of the leaves in the dwarf forest. I thought these were beeches? Can't find the article though.

[Maggi Young]

Anthony, I think I may have found the post.... it was  in the Old Forum...   


Lesley made the post on  on Saturday, October 07, 2006  and wrote......   

Start off with a couple of small trees in flower now.
Nothofagus antarctica is a small (for now anyway) southern beech from South America. It is deciduous and has beautiful gold autumn colouring.
 

[Maggi Young]

Or it may have been this page,   
  http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1584.msg43543;topicseen#msg43543

where you discussed the southern beeches with RobK...... mention of  Notofagus gunnii
and which contained this link..... http://www.sgaonline.org.au/plant_nothofagus.html ....  to the great autumn colours!

[mark smyth]

I've never noticed flowers on a tree growing in a friend's garden.

[Anthony Darby]

Yep, not the first one but the second with Lesley's Nothofagus gunnii. The 'Tanglefoot' references says it only grows to 2 metres tall. What a sleuth you are Maggi?!

[Paul T]

N. gunnii is Australia's only true deciduous tree.  We have some other plants that are semi-deciduous, but nothing that truly drops it's leaves for winter.  We have 2 small plants growing at the ANBG that have now survived for 3 full years.  The guy who planted them is ecstatic each year when they come out of dormancy.  They really aren't suited to our heat.    Cute little plants though (they're only a foot high, so have some growing to do if they continue to survive!  ).  The N. cunninghamii on the other hand seem to thrive here, growing to well over 4 metres, but not sure exactly of their height.  They're lovely plants, nice new growth, nice shape.  Altogether something I would love to grow if I had the space.

[Lesley Cox]

Anthony, all of NZ's Nothofagus ssp are evergreen except that they do drop a lot of leaves, pushed off by new ones I think. A walk in a beech forest is like a walk on sponge, with a thick carpet of the fallen leaves which are very persistant. In particular, N. fusca, the red beech loses a lot of leaves in very hot or dry conditions (it's probably the one most seen in gardens) and these leaves are frequently scarlet though the tree as a whole remains green. All our species grow to be forest giants, beautifully shaped, as specimens.

All or come of the South Americans are deciduous and some at least, colour superbly. I remember seeing slides at a talk a few years ago, of (perhaps) N. pumila, a whole forest of scarlet and crimson.

[Paul T]

Lsley,

Our Toona in Aus (Red Cedar) has the same sort of very brief leaf loss, as the new buds are shooting through.  Technically they're more or less deciduous I guess, but aren't dormant for winter like the truly deciduous plants.  We have a couple of other plants that do the same, but I am not sure what other Nothofagus we have here in Aus and whether they do this or not.  I think you guys have more of the Nothofagus than we do (although I think we also have some northern ones that stretch into New Guinea?), don't you, and then South America has even more of them?

[Otto Fauser]

Paul,
 did you see the Nothofagus gunnii in my garden ? after 35 years it is now 4 meters
tall - in autumn it turns a golden yellow - not the brilliant orange -reds , as in its native
Tasmania , where on exposed mountaintops it is almost prostate- simalar to
Betula nana, also in its shape and size of the leaves.
      Otto.

[Paul T]

Otto,

No, I didn't see it in your garden.  Then again I was mostly looking downward at all the stunning little treasures in view, rather than up into the trees.    Oh well, I guess we had better come down for another visit some time. 

[Anthony Darby]

So now I need a kind Tasmanian to send me seeds of Nothofagus gunnii and hope I'm still around in 35 years to appreciate it.

[Lesley Cox]

I didn't see it either Otto but of course we were there in spring and it would be most noticeable in the autumn. when Don and I saw it at Mt Field, it was about 2-3m high and all gold, no orange or red at all.

[fermi de Sousa]

N. gunnii is Australia's only true deciduous tree.  We have some other plants that are semi-deciduous, but nothing that truly drops it's leaves for winter. 

Paul,
you have to remember that the Kurrajong (e.g. Brachychiton discolor) can drop all its foliage - but usually in summer!  Absolutely useless as a Shade Tree especially as it's in full leaf in winter and cuts out the winter sun!
cheers
fermi