TreeTuesday: "Us Living Our Lives ... Them Living Theirs"
TreeTuesday
Friends, this my 2nd entry in the Alliteration-of-the-Day Photo Challenge run by the eminent @old-guy-photos. It is also my 1st entry in which I will be following all the Rules of the Challenge (no poetry this time). I'm 1 for 2.
So here it goes:
Just off our condo's balcony are a group of trees exhibiting some fascinating behavior at the moment: They are shedding their bark in their entirety (apparently a process called "exfoliation"). My best guess from searching Google images is that these trees are some kind of Sycamore but, if someone disagrees, let me know in the comments section and I'll gladly edit accordingly.
This fellow is about half way through the shedding process. The peeling bark is light, hard and very brittle.
But look at his neighbor, not more than 15 feet away. He's practically finished the process. Why the difference? I don't know for sure but I suspect it has to do with the amount of sun they're receiving. The tree with the more advanced shedding gets more direct sunlight while the less advanced one is a bit more shaded by other trees and the condo buildings.
So there you have it. Trees shedding their skin.
As an aside, Katie and I discussed the fact that, although those trees have been in our direct line of sight for years, prior to this challenge we had never bothered to take notice of what they were experiencing. Us living our lives, and them living theirs ... hundreds of feet apart, yet oblivious to each other's experience. Perhaps there's a philosophical, even poetic, insight in such an observation ... if one were so inclined to see it.
I thought of this post today.
We have 3 planned fires burning within 10 kms of our home. The air is thick. The kid's are needing Ventolin tonight. Our poorly insulated home is pungent with the burning eucalypt.
Hopefully the burn off will save homes and bush land next summer. and regenerate life.
We are keeping a close eye on the firefighter updates.
These are cool specimens! I never have seen that before here, or if I did I didn't pay it much mind! Like as you wrote of you and Katie, there is a lesson in that.
@old-guy-photos,
Hey Paul.
It's strange. They've been doing this for years and it never occurred to me to ask, "What the heck is going on." I saw it, but I didn't see it. Apparently, Eucalyptus trees do this as well ... but they have a rainbow of colors in the underlying bark! Katie is asking around at school to see if any of her friends have a Eucalyptus tree. If they do, we're going to take a photo (before), and then take the bark back home and extract the Eucalyptus Oil (after) from it with Katie's home laboratory equipment (which now rivals many undergraduate labs ... 6 years of Alzheimer's Research and Experimentation ... for my Mom.
THOSE photos should be worth 100% Upvotes across the board.
Is it a eucalypt? The bark looks like it might be, but I'm not sure about the leaves, there are so many varieties.
They shed their bark and leaves, and the eucalyptus oil is flammable. The only way many Australian trees can germinate is with fire. They drop their own kindling.
This is one in my street.
It might be...
https://www.gardenguides.com/about_6715849_information-florida-eucalyptus-trees.html
@girlbeforemirror,
Marg, that was our second guess ... and it might be right. The reason we shied away from Eucalyptus was that the underlying bark (the new stuff) often has a multitude of colors (rainbow-like). Although, in your picture, that doesn't appear to be the case.
A copy-paste from my reply to @old-guy-photos somewhere in this section:
.
I find that incredibly fascinating. The more you learn about Nature, the more it amazes. Although it's science (and I'm a science guy), the Art in it is profound. Indeed, Margaret, there's a poem in there. Like a Phoenix, born from its ashes. Fire ... the crucible of life. Remember me saying that you need silk to make a silk purse. That's silk.
Speaking of poems, how's our collaboration going? If you need any help, or just want to brainstorm, don't be shy.
Thanks for this great comment.
I did a spot of research, the pretty rainbow variety were popular in US, California have them too.
The one above apparently is one of only a few left in my area that were standing here before European settlement.
We have many paper bark and ghost gums too. They shed in large sheets. I have painted on them.
This one gave me that sheet of bark.
https://steemit.com/art/@girlbeforemirror/steemit-vision-quest-rediscovering-the-queen-of-the-forest
I learnt something today. Rainbow eucalyptus trees aren't from Australia. They are found in Papua, Indonesia and The Philippines.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/eucalyptus/rainbow-eucalyptus-tree.htm
I am reading through and starting to gather some ideas now for my poetry task.
Although it bares no resemblance, the lion and sheep references reminded me of one of my sons favourite rhyming books.
The very cranky bear.
There are a number of YouTube read alongs. This lady sings it! - Enjoy.
Beep! Beep! This humvee will be patrolling by and assisting new veterans, retirees, and military members here on Steem. @shadow3scalpel will help by upvoting posts from a list of members maintained by @chairborne and responding to any questions replied to this comment.
Nice pictures and great commentary.
In our yard, we have trees that appear to be shedding their bark too. The only difference is that they never seem to actually shed it. I call them “raggedy trees” but I think they’re actually river birch trees. They also shed small branches and twigs all the time. Our neighborhood is lined with them. They’re all the same. I dislike them immensely.