Some seedlings from around my garden

[Ianab]

Spring here and I've been checking how my trees have been doing over the winter.
Anyway they are species that are likely to be foriegn to many, so here's a few pictures.

First is a rimu, NZ native. One of the main forest trees here, very nice timber but slow growing. Expect about 400 years for this one to mature, it's about 4 years old now 


Close up of the 'leaves', well they are more of a scale on the branchlets.



This one is a miro, a related species. It doesn't grow as big, but doesn't grow any faster either 





This one migth be more familiar, we call it sycamore, but it's a species of maple, Acer pseudoplatanus. Grows like a weed here, this one was just tranplanted from the lawn under a mature tree that I have.


This one is a Chinese walnut Juglans mandschurica. It's self seeded, I guess kids have chucked some nuts over the fence from a big specimen next door. It does produce edible nuts, but they are small and HARD to get into. It usually grows with a heavily branched form so it's seldom used for timber. The spreading branches make for good treehut trees, so it attracts metal just like your walnut.


And this one is just a wild cherry, one of some seedlings Lil's mother gave me. This would be the youngest tree there, but the tallest. About 3 years old I think and over 6 ft tall. They do have nice flowers though.


Anyway thats my effort at re-foresting the back of my section. Check back in another 20 years or so 

Cheers

Ian

[Furby]

Not bad!
Is that wild cherry like ours?

I planted a bunch of nuts a year ago but none came up.
Have a feeling they may have been "found" before they had a chance.

[Ianab]

Is that wild cherry like ours?

I think so, Prunus avium. It's a European species, but I believe it's naturalised in the USA as well.

Cheers

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Your first tree is a good size for 4 years old. Kind of like cedar, but our northern white is a lot slower as you can see in the cedar seedling thread. But, doesn't take so long to mature. Your second plant, miro, is also interesting. Kind of like a hemlock. I find hemlock in my area very slow growing, but on the west coast it grows like weeds. Your sycamore maple sure reminds me of sycamore, although I have no experience with sycamore. The closest wild stock to me is in south central Maine I think. Your walnuts and cherries are looking good. Do you get black knot in your sweet cherry varieties? Black knot ruins most our local black cherry, although you can get some shorter sections (logs) off some trees. I had an 8 inch cherry that a buddy cut 6 nice 6" boards from a few years back. A little bit of bark on a couple of the boards at the small end though.

[sprucebunny]

Thanks, Ian.

I'm always interested in seeing species that are different from here. 

[Ianab]

Do you get black knot in your sweet cherry varieties?

Dont know, it's only grown as an ornamental around here. It seeds around peoples gardens and is pretty common, but not cut as a timber tree.

This thread has some pics of old rimu forest up the road with some mature rimu trees. Give you an idea on how big they actually grow.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=4822.0

Cheers

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Here is a Norway Maple seedling. 'Crimson King' from last years seed. I happened to see them coming up on the lawn since I mowed last week. 

 

[Dan_Shade]

what's the scale of that norway maple?

[SwampDonkey]

About 3 inches long.