leaves, clouds, platforms, tiers, thoughts

Sydney

One of the most distinctive traits of Eucalyptus, to me, is its tendency to throw out puffy clouds of foliage, with space in between them.

 

I grew up in Oregon, and until I first traveled to California at age 16,  and saw my first eucalypt, I don't think I'd ever seen a tree that does this.  So it's one of those things that will always be strange, will always mean "away" as opposed to "home." 

Here in Australia, of course, eucalypts are everywhere, so this growth habit is the norm.  It's most noticeable when looking at a mass of trees against the sky; the highest leaf-clouds float a little above the dark mass of the forest, like thought bubbles in a cartoon.

That's what it is.  These puffs of foliage look like thoughts.

Am I the only person who thinks of Doctor Seuss when considering a Eucalyptus?  In fantasylands of his children's books, masses of foliage up in a tree could be platforms, as though the leaf-clouds were firm enough to walk on.  I often wondered if the tiered habit of eucalyptus (widely planted in San Diego, where he lived) had been part of his inspiration.

I thought of this again in New Caledonia, where there is no eucalyptus, but many unrelated trees have a similar tiering habit.  Here, it's mostly Gymnostoma, from Australia's casuarina family.

Viewed head-on, they're nothing much, but now and then, in the corner of my eye, the high, floating horizontal puffs feel like the land's thoughts.  As though the land is imagining.  Working a problem, perhaps, in its own time.

 

Comments

[Denis Wilson]

Hi Jarrett
The asymmetry of Eucalypts troubled our early settlers. Even the artists did not learn to draw them (as they are) until the second generation, or even much later - Hans Heysen.
That's why our early settlers loved the Norfolk Island Pines, and other native Aurucarias, and even native Palms, as they looked like "proper trees" to them. On the South Coast, the farm lands still have tall stands of Cabbage Tree Palms, which they left (did not cut down), because they looked "familiar" to their European eyes, as palms from Africa have been grown in Europe for thousands of years.
Having been a guide in the Botanic Gardens in Canberra, many American visitors could not understand what appears to be "naked trunks" of the smooth barked Gums. I guess if one grew up with pines, and elms and oaks, then Angophoras and Scribbly Gums do look naked. Another aspect of their strangeness.
Cheers
Denis

[dale]

God, I love what you write. No one else does anything quite like it.

[Teresa Gilman]

Yes. Through three cheese trees/three free fleas flew./While these fleas flew,/freezy breeze blew.....

Jarrett, I love your observation of the earth thoughts. There is some kind of a tree that grows around here that late in the summer begins to grow something that makes it end up looking like smoke. Like the tree is all smoke.

I'll have to find out what it is now.

Thanks for your interesting writing as usual.

Teresa

[Miss Bliss]

Sigh. Eucalyptus always reminds me of C-mont and the year the winds were so wild and they all fell over.

[Jarrett]

Thanks for the comments, all.

Denis, yes that's a post in itself. I'll do a post on symmetry at some point, or maybe just quote yours.

Teresa, I'm glad I can trust you to have some of the Seuss canon committed to memory.