Saturday, 28 April 2007

Street Trees

Everywhere we go, I'm impressed by the street trees and shrubs in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Some I recognize, like the maples here in the upper Blue Mountains, many now turning colour as the fall progresses. Or the sasanqua camellias, which I've already mentioned, flourishing everywhere either as large trees or smaller shrubs often grown in columnar rows as hedging.
A new plant to me, now in flower all over Sydney's North Shore suburbs is Gordonia axillaris, a native of Taiwan and Vietnam. A close relative of Franklinia alatamaha, it makes a very attractive shrub and, unlike Franklinia, is evergreen.
An interesting characteristic of the flowers is that they always fall "butter side up", making a decorative carpet around the trunk.

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