Rhodosphaera rhodanthemaFamily: ANACARDIACEAE
This plant is another mango relative.
In his comment on my “Toowoomba Trees” article, Mick included it as a suggested Camphor laurel replacement.
I couldn’t believe how fast mine grew when I first planted it. It’s now eight years old, but reached almost the size shown in the picture in only four of them, when it decided to put on the brakes. Its reputation as a slow grower, eventually reaching camphor laurel size, is clea
rly not based on its early years.This fast grow
th does make it satisfying to grow, as a pretty, shady tree is obtained in a very short time.Last September my tree responded to the drought with this lovely crop of flowers, and was a buzzing mass of native bees.
Despite this it produced no fruit at all. This photo is of a friend’s tree. The berries look as though someone’s been polishing them with Nugget, don’t they?
Deep yellowwoods are drought and frost hardy trees, and are rather hard to set alight. We sometimes find ourselves being told not to plant natives in bushfire-risk areas because “they are so flammable”. This is very good advice where Eucalypts are concerned - and applies rather more strongly to some very non-native trees, like pines and cypresses - but drought-hardy rainforest trees like this one are a good choice where bushfires might be a problem.
17 comments:
mine frosted in June 2010 but is recovering
I collected seed from a street tree in Maleny and am trying to propagate some using soaked seeds that Ive nicked at the tip. I'd love to get a few successes. So happy I found this great site. Thanks.
Nice to hear from you. I wish you all the best with your seeds. They can take a long time, so be patient.
If you still have no success by next year, try whether making sure you pick fruit as soon as it looks ripe. Nobody's sure whether this really gives quicker results, but it's worth a try. Some people don't nick them at all. Some do as you've done. Some cut the bud end off with sharp side-cutters.
Best of luck.
Cheers,
Trish
Two of the 20 seeds from the street tree in Maleny have sprouted which I'm very excited about. That's only 6 weeks since planting. I hope I get some more. The seeds looked like they'd been on the tree a while btw.
Great news! I've found them highly variable when it comes to germinating, and have never got the bottom of why, so I'm glad to hear yours were so quick.
I hope you find places where all your seedlings can grow to a happy old age.
Trish
Patricia, i used your pages as a reference. I have a few Deep Yellowood seedings to plant. I am glad they are fast, as i only have a few rainforest pioneer species, the Deep Yellowood isnt a pioneer i dont think, but i read that its fast and yours certainly grow well without much attension. Another species the Whalebone, i find it pretty fast the seedlings in their tubes already showing new growth. I am at Tallai in the Gold COast Hinterland. Some years back i planted a rainforest near the creek, spacing this time is around 1.8m between the plants and staggered and not in a straight line. I couldnt accesss Ribbonwood or Celerywood which i read are very fast from the local regen tubestock.
Hi Neverland. It's good to hear from someone who is doing such a good job of putting plants back in the places where they belong.
Ribbonwood and celerywood would be great additions, as their seeds are so good for birds. Celerywood, in particular, doesn't take many years to start producing fruits. If you keep checking, you may find some plants turn up.
Trish
Hi, does anybody knows if this tree attracts Flying Foxes? I am worried about the mess as I am planting close to the house.
Thanks
Hello Luis.
The fruits definitely don't attract flying foxes. I am not certain about the flowers. (You are probably aware that the so-called "fruit bats" depend heavily on nectar.) However, they flowers don't seem to produce nectar in the sort of quantity that would attract them.
I have several plants in my own garden, and am not aware of flying foxes being attracted to them.
Trish
Hi Patricia, my mum's tree also had a mass of flowers and an ensuing mass of native bees, but no fruit. Do you have any idea why fruit would not set? We were very surprised, and disappointed of course too. Thanks, Patrina
Hello Patrina.
You did not say which year your Mum's tree had flowered. Was it this year? If so, are you absolutely certain there are no tiny fruits there? They take some months to mature and brown up, and at first they are not particularly obvious.
If it was a genuine no-show, then was it the tree's first year of flowering? Some plants take a few years to settle down into full fruit production. If I remember rightly my oldest tree took some years to produce fruit. Another, younger tree got straight into it though. It flowered which still quite young, and has heavy crops of fruit.
The native bees are great news, particularly as there is evidence coming through that they could be on the decline. We can only hope that our governments see the light and continue to ban feral honeybees from our national parks. It is good to see your mother's tree in there providing essential food for them. Meanwhile we can hope for it to fruit beautifully in the future.
Trish
Hi Trish, thank you for responding. It was this year's flowering (Aug-Sept) and also last year's. Definitely no fruit both times. We don't know if it fruited before that as Mum has only been at this house for a couple of years. It is a very tall and appears to be a mature tree but I have no idea of the age. Lack of nutrients maybe?? - it does not get much attention unfortunately but we will give it some extra care and see what next year brings. I will let you know. Regards, Patrina
Hi Patrina.
When a plant flowers but doesn't set fruit there can be three reasons that I am aware of:
1. Flowers not pollinated. This sounds unlikely given your bees. There are plant species which need a second plant for pollination, but I am not aware of this species having that problem.
2. Lack of water. This is possible given the weather we were having then. If your Mum can afford the water, she could try giving the root zone a thorough drenching when the plant is coming into full flower next year.
3. Nutrient deficiency. I would be out of my depth giving you advice here. You could try mulching the root zone (remembering that the dripline is where the action is happening), and/or fertilising with a complete fertiliser. This is a rainforest plant, accustomed to soil with a reasonable phosphorus content, so the fertiliser you would use should be a complete fertiliser of the kind you would use on veges, not the "native plant" fertilisers which are low in phosphorus to suit plants from our poorer soils.
Good luck!
Trish
Hi Patricia,
No effort required to obtain Rhodosphaera seedlings. Leave the seeds lying in the plentiful leaf mulch which rapidly accumlates under Deep Yellow Wood trees, and in seemingly no time at all you'll have a virtual forest of little seedlings from which to choose some select samples.
All the best, Ian.
Yes indeed, Ian. This year's rainy weather has brought seedlings of many species out in their millions.
It is a wonderful opportunity for us to increase our native vegetation with some judicious replanting into suitable sites. Just now, we can even move plants from site to site, putting them into a damp piece of soil with a good watering just tog et them started. It is less of a gamble than usual just to leave them alone after that, to let nature do its thing.
Trish
Does anyone know what animals eat the seeds? I have found my tree much further south than expected on the Comboyne plateau NSW in deep rainforest and wonder what spreads the seeds?
If you ever find out, please let me know!
The seeds don't look as though anything would eat them, or at least not until they are so old that the hard seed-coat has broken down.
We get cockatoos, but even they show no interest in the seeds.
I can't imagine what kind of creature would be motivated to carry the seed away from the parent tree.
Trish
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