Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Melaleuca and friends



















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melaleuca

3 comments:

Connie said...

I grew up on a road named Melaleuca, with a row of trees down the center of the block (behind the houses). They were messy, and probably ripped out as a nuisance tree nowadays, but I liked them... you could climb to the top of one, lean it over to the next, jump over, climb to the top, repeat... all the way to the end of the block. I'd ground my kids if I caught them doing something like that... :D

Limningedge said...

Connie
Their common name here is paperbark and you can peel off the bark in sheets like very fine cork. They love living in conditions where they are flooded, sometimes for long periods of time. During the dry season, if you see them, it indicates that the land would be "rather damp" in the wet season.

Connie said...

We called them paperbark too.. and this was in Florida, where it tends to be 'rather damp' all year. They are considered an invasive species nowadays. We enjoyed playing with the 'paper'... altho it got everywhere when a storm blew through. We'd be out picking up bark and branches and bits of banana trees after any good storm!