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Totally a tangent but as an Australian I'm amazed at how common eucalyptus trees are in California. They were introduced just 150 years ago and parts of Califor

Totally a tangent but as an Australian I'm amazed at how common eucalyptus trees are in California. They were introduced just 150 years ago and parts of California have denser eucalypt forest than Australia now. Which isn't good for California's bio diversity and given the flammability of eucalyptus is bad from a safety point of view too. There should be more of an effort to remove them.

tomcam 5y ago
Useless anecdata: I grew up in Southern California and absolutely adore eucalyptus trees. The smell is wondrous.
- elboru 5y ago
  They are also great against mosquitoes
jet_32951 5y ago
Unlike eucalypts in Australia, in California and Hawai'i nothing eats them. Tasmanian bluegum is the most common eucalypt in that range [0]. Therefore a) they grow very rapidly, and b) are useless as structural or furniture woods. The Berkeley Hills "Tunnel" fire of 1991 [1] was driven in large measure by the presence of eucalypts. In much of northern California today, eucalypts are seen as large flammable weeds. [0] https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/eucglo/all.html https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/eucglo/all.h... [1] https://www.caloes.ca.gov/FireRescueSite/Documents/CFIW-Oakland%20Berkeley%20Hills.pdf https://www.caloes.ca.gov/FireRescueSite/Documents/CFIW-Oakl...
- ncmncm 5y ago
  We would do better to grow Acacia acuminata, Raspberry Jam Tree, in SoCal. It grows fast, and smells like raspberry jam when sawed. Australia has millions of century-old A. acu. fenceposts, 'cause they last forever. Carbon capture! The wood (like most acacia) is excellent for furniture. https://www.australianplants.com/about.aspx https://www.australianplants.com/about.aspx (It is not on her price list, but I know she has it.) It is also easy to refine DMT from the fallen leaves. Or sawdust.
elboru 5y ago
We used to have tons of eucalyptus trees in my hometown in northern Mexico. Then an unusual winter arrived 10 years ago, temperatures dropped to -24 Celsius. All the eucalyptuses died and with them a big percentage of our vegetation and shade. I don’t know why we are so obsessed with foreign flora in our cities.
contingencies 5y ago
They're also all over southern China - https://www.fao.org/3/AC772E/ac772e04.htm https://www.fao.org/3/AC772E/ac772e04.htm suggests over 1.5 billion. As well as eucalypts there are really a huge amount of street plantings of Aussie Myrtaceae, such as bottlebrush and paperbark. All are deep rooted trees, they will seek water to impressive depths. Casuarina as well, although the predominant species is endemic to much of Asia and apparently Gondwanan.
steven_noble 5y ago
It's the same in parts of Spain. You take a walk in the wild, hoping to experience the local flora, and you find yourself surrounded by these highly flammable trees that have travelled as far as you have to get there. Pretty, but no more so than the displaced native flora, and disastrous from an environmental or fire management point of view.

tomcam 5y ago

Useless anecdata: I grew up in Southern California and absolutely adore eucalyptus trees. The smell is wondrous.

elboru 5y ago
They are also great against mosquitoes

jet_32951 5y ago

Unlike eucalypts in Australia, in California and Hawai'i nothing eats them. Tasmanian bluegum is the most common eucalypt in that range [0]. Therefore a) they grow very rapidly, and b) are useless as structural or furniture woods. The Berkeley Hills "Tunnel" fire of 1991 [1] was driven in large measure by the presence of eucalypts. In much of northern California today, eucalypts are seen as large flammable weeds. [0] https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/eucglo/all.html https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/eucglo/all.h... [1] https://www.caloes.ca.gov/FireRescueSite/Documents/CFIW-Oakland%20Berkeley%20Hills.pdf https://www.caloes.ca.gov/FireRescueSite/Documents/CFIW-Oakl...

ncmncm 5y ago
We would do better to grow Acacia acuminata, Raspberry Jam Tree, in SoCal. It grows fast, and smells like raspberry jam when sawed. Australia has millions of century-old A. acu. fenceposts, 'cause they last forever. Carbon capture! The wood (like most acacia) is excellent for furniture. https://www.australianplants.com/about.aspx https://www.australianplants.com/about.aspx (It is not on her price list, but I know she has it.) It is also easy to refine DMT from the fallen leaves. Or sawdust.

elboru 5y ago

We used to have tons of eucalyptus trees in my hometown in northern Mexico. Then an unusual winter arrived 10 years ago, temperatures dropped to -24 Celsius. All the eucalyptuses died and with them a big percentage of our vegetation and shade. I don’t know why we are so obsessed with foreign flora in our cities.

contingencies 5y ago

They're also all over southern China - https://www.fao.org/3/AC772E/ac772e04.htm https://www.fao.org/3/AC772E/ac772e04.htm suggests over 1.5 billion. As well as eucalypts there are really a huge amount of street plantings of Aussie Myrtaceae, such as bottlebrush and paperbark. All are deep rooted trees, they will seek water to impressive depths. Casuarina as well, although the predominant species is endemic to much of Asia and apparently Gondwanan.

steven_noble 5y ago

It's the same in parts of Spain. You take a walk in the wild, hoping to experience the local flora, and you find yourself surrounded by these highly flammable trees that have travelled as far as you have to get there. Pretty, but no more so than the displaced native flora, and disastrous from an environmental or fire management point of view.