Posts Tagged ‘exocarpos cuppresiformis’

• Wild Cherries Grow On The River Bank

  Date: 2009.01.04 | Category: family, Horticulture | Response: 1

  Yesterday the kids and I spent an idyllic morning down by our local river. This beautiful river is literally just down the road and around the corner from where we live.

  

  It was a gorgeous morning, sunny and warm with lots of dragonflies flitting about. The kids spent their time swimming in the river while I threw in a fishing line. I did catch a few fish but only small so they were released back into the river.

  

  If you look across the water to the other river bank you can see that big tall, very green tree there. It’s the one to the left of the photo. It is quite conical in shape and actually looks a little like a pine. The rest of the foliage is rather dull and grey but this one always looks vivid and lush. The tree is known as Cherry Ballart or Wild Cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis). The tree is native to the Eastern states of Australia and is often admired for its lovely, pendulous growth habit which often turns purple or bronze in the Winter. The other thing that is amazing about this tree is that it is actually a parasite and lives on the roots of it’s host plant, usually Eucalypt’s. This is no way suggests though that it is a menace. It is a native plant species that is an integral part of the Australian bush. The other wonderful thing about this tree is it produces edible fruit and dense fine grained timber too. The timber has been used for fashioning tool handles and other woodturning work.