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Weird Wandoos

8/4/2015

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PictureLarge burl caused by insect or disease
Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                       I frequently see misshapen wandoos with several stems arising from stumps that had been logged decades ago to make fence posts and sheep yards. 
Our trees are seasoned survivors, which have adapted to poor soils, insects and inclement weather
A trees is basically a layer of living tissue (sapwood) around a dead wooden core. When the heartwood in a living tree rots and is eaten by termites, nutrients tied up in the wood are released for the tree to reuse. Resulting holes provide hiding places and nest sites for the wildlife.

Occasionally one sees amazing trees like the wandoo in this blog, which was sculpted by an unidentified insect​

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Bark remnants after sapwood insect damage
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Foxes Lair bunyip
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Candy Block walking wandoo
Eucalypts are amazingly tough, having evolved to survive in our infertile soils. Compared to trees in other countries, they often have a tiny taproot and extensive lateral roots. This makes them vulnerable to being blown over, but enable them to often survive and grow as a tree with vertical branches rising from a vertical stem.
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shallow roots on overturned brown mallet
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Horizontal brown mallet end view
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Horizontal brown mallet side view
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Granite Trail in Autumn

2/4/2015

 
Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                      Today I visited the Granite Trail with Jess, a colleague and an economist with a heart. I wanted to show her the visual delight of colour and form of a wandoo draped over a large granite rock that is shown at 2 times in the day below. Jess admitted that it is a nice rock (but not suitable for a quarry I guess!).
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Dawn
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Mid-morning
I had more success in activating the economic aorta when we moved to the flowering Dodonaea humifusa  (a hopbush) groundcover plants that drape over rocks in red clay soil.
This hardy and delightful species has male and female plants like the she-oaks. Male plant flowers appear normal at first glance, but are basically petals and anthers that released a cloud of pollen when Jess touched them. She loved that. The female plant flowers are just the ovary with a red style (tube).
​If you know any economists who need an emotional kickstart, take them to the Granite Trail in late summer-autumn.

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Female plant on left,male on right
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Carpets of evergreen plants
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Glistening red styles on female plants
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Males seem to have normal flowers
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Female flower left male right

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    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

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