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Australian trees: exotic and native in the National Arboretum



Canberra, the capital of Australia, has marine west oceanic climate with four distinct seasons (summer, autumn, winter, and spring). Amid this climate, Canberra is well-known for its trees.

The National Arboretum Canberra, previously called the Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens, is located six kilometres from the city centre on a 250-hectare site in the Greenhills Forest, west of the Tuggeranong Parkway and Lake Burley Griffin, near the National Zoo and Aquarium. On site, trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for conservation, scientific and educational study, display, and preservation. It displays trees from around the world, in addition to native trees of Australia.

The Arboretum’s forest plantings of endangered native and exotic species is a key component of the local government’s commitment to the One Million Trees initiative and is a contribution to the government’s Climate Change Strategy 2007-25: Weathering the Change. Plantings of exotic trees include: Californian Fan Plant, Chinese Tulip Tree, Persian Ironwood, Giant Sequoia, Judas Tree, Moroccan and Saharan Cypress, Norway Spruce, Taiwan Trident Maple, Canary Island Madrona, Pecan, Turkish Pine, Japanese Pagoda tree, Lebanese Cedar, and Chilean Myrtle. The Australian plantings include a variety of ironbark, gum trees, birches, and wattles.

Two of the Arboretum’s most spectacular displays are the 5,000 Himalayan Cedars and the 80-year-old Cork Oak plantation.

5000 Himalayan Cedar Plantings

Few of the thousands of cedars planted in Canberra did not survive the 2003 bush fires. The Arboretum’s planting is a living legacy to the Himalayan Cedar (deodar in Urdu – said to be a derivative of “goddess wood”). Unlike the Atlas Cedar which comes from North Africa with branches that turn upwards, or the Cedar of Lebanon with horizontal branches, the Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara) has drooping branches. Indigenous to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Nepal, the Himalayan Cedars have a fragrant wood with strong, straight grain. The fragrant wood is like a moth repellent, which is why it was used to construct storage chests and to make incense sticks. Unlike elongated, light pine cones, the ripe cones of the cedar are hard and shaped like barrels (7-11cm in length). The cones shed winged seeds, but the cockatoos in Canberra love to eat them – therefore there are very few self-sown seedlings. They have the ability to withstand periodic droughts in their monsoonal homelands.

80-Year-Old Cork Oak Plantation

The historic Cork Oaks (Quercus suber) are fire tolerant, hardly producing any litter. The bark provides heat protection to the trunk and the foliage does not burn easily, so they are well suited to Canberra’s climate – with the existing trees surviving the 2003 bush fire. There are two plantations of cork oak in the city and may have been planted in 1955, sourced possibly from a tree planted in 1861 near Duntroon in Canberra. The plantations have dark brown acorns set in beige cups with scales that are fringed at the rim. The leaves are glossy dark green above, and paler grey-green and hairy below, and bear five small teeth on each side.

The Arboretum continues its construction, since its establishment in 2004, and therefore there is no access on Monday to Saturday. In the future, it proposes to accommodate a bonsai pavilion, artworks, a café/restaurant, and a reflective pavilion. It is open to the public on the second Sunday of each month. However, every Sunday during the Floriade flower festival (25 September to 14 October), there are additional bus tours to the Arboretum.


Bookings are required. Please see Friends of the Arboretum website for details: www.arboretumcanberra.org.au





Voices in the Forest; 24 November 2012

The inaugural event, Voices in the Forest, was held in November last year, with over three thousand people in attendance. The event this year will be held on Saturday, November 24, 2012 from 2:00pm, with the concert from 5:00-8:30pm. The headline act will be internationally-acclaimed Korean soprano, SUMI JO. Sumi Jo will be joined by Stuart Skelton and soprano Amelia Farrugia, and accompanied by the Band of the Royal Military College of Duntroon; the Voices in the Forest Orchestra; and the Oriana Chorale conducted by Roland Peelman.


For more information go to www.voicesintheforest.com.au  

Other events in the National Arboretum Canberra include:





Sunday 14th October
OPEN DAY, 10.00am – 4.00pm
Canberra Discovery Garden (Irrigation Design)

Sunday 11th November
OPEN DAY, 10.00am – 4.00pm
Canberra Discovery Garden (Growing Natives)

Saturday 24th November
Voices in the Forest

Sunday 9th December
OPEN DAY, 10.00am – 4.00pm
Canberra Discovery Garden (Gardens in Summer)

http://www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.au






 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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