5yr Native Tree Challenge - Starfox's: Tetraclinis articulata

[Starfox]

So the other week a heap of trees around us started shedding there seeds ready for the autumn rains(which has largely not come) so I gathered a bunch of them to sow.
These are Tetraclinis articulata seeds and I sowed all of these into a tray and now they have started to germinate. Bit of an odd species in the cyprus family.

Tetraclinis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'm going to try and take inspiration from the local ones around me which I see every day out the windows as these ones seem to look as if they struggle and are more sparce than the ones you find on google images. I'm guessing that's down to poor local soil and inconsistent rainfall.
They tend to have tall thin trunks so they probably wont beef up much.

At some point I may take some pics of the full grown ones around me to share if anyone is interested.




So far about ten have germinated with more on the way.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Wow, I'm glad you posted the wikipedia link. That is an interesting conifer. It used to be called a Thuja, though it turns out it is not. In my climate, we have Thuja occidentalis, arborvitae. So this is similar in appearance but able to handle a dry, hot Mediterranean climate. Excellent. I will enjoy seeing how these develop. Some photos of wild ones would be cool too, especially if you find some that will serve as "bonsai inspiration".

 

[Starfox]

Wow, I'm glad you posted the wikipedia link. That is an interesting conifer. It used to be called a Thuja, though it turns out it is not. In my climate, we have Thuja occidentalis, arborvitae. So this is similar in appearance but able to handle a dry, hot Mediterranean climate. Excellent. I will enjoy seeing how these develop. Some photos of wild ones would be cool too, especially if you find some that will serve as "bonsai inspiration".

Yeah I agree, the fact that it is a bit of an odd one is primarily why I like them. It took me ages to ID the things too and am pretty sure they are protected here in Spain. I´ve tried to dig one before which was a bit naughty and it did´t survive plus I have never managed to get a cutting to strike so I´m happy I have some germinating now. I generally don´t get on with conifers, ie they die on me, but I really want to make the effort to keep these ones healthy so fingers crossed.
I will see what pics I can get tomorrow, I have only seen these in the 3 vacant blocks of land that are next to our house. It´s this odd little pocket of them really as I don´t see them anywhere else locally. Another bonus is you can coppice them, not that I think I will but that bodes well for hard cut backs and new shoots.

 

[leatherback]

cool. Nice to see you getting them to germinate!

 

[Starfox]

OK, later than promised but have a few iffy pics which may be of use.

First off here are a couple of links that show them elsewhere.

Tetraclinis articulata | Threatened Conifers of the World (en-GB)

Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Mast.

Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Mast.. Arbusto o pequeño árbol monoico, siempreverde, de 6-8(20) m, con un solo tronco o con varios troncos, con frecuencia ramificados desde poca altura;

www.asturnatura.com

As you can see they can be quite bushy and dense.
The ones around me don't seem that way at all and look sparse and stressed so that is the kind of inspiration I'll take if any survive. My best guess is it is a combo of wind, soil and rainfall that cause them to be primarily like this around me and you can see how they grow tall, thin and not so straight.

This first pic is a stand of them on the left of the pine, they often grow in stands and if they have multiple trunks it exaggerates that look so certainly one idea I have thought of is a forest planting. There is another stand right out front that I didn't get a shot of which I don't know why but they again would look great as a planting.




This little one I really like, you can see the twigging and bending of the upper trunk and areas with negative space. It also has a more rounded crown than you will see in the other pics.




Another tall one with a not so straight trunk and a bit of a lean. Hard to see on the pic but where that leftwards lean starts the trunk divide into 2.




Again, tall and stressed looking but that top third section loaded with nuts weighing the branching down is way cool.




The last one I quite like too, it has a lean and the bottom half on the right hand side is absent of branching altogether. I think that may be due to the local Carob pickers who probably snapped them off to get at the other tree.



So overall they are interesting trees and the sparse look of these is the basis of my inspiration I guess.

 

[Forsoothe!]

You're right that forests need sparse trees to look good. People don't realize that until they start to assemble trees that won't fit together right. In fact the worse they are for stand-alone, the better they are for forests.

It's probably illegal, but to spread endangered, protected and/or diminishing stock around, I collect seeds and spread them in other like areas. Here, Butterfly Weed is protected but they disappear when someone sees them growing by the side of the road. I bought one and have them in my garden and collect the seeds, give them away to anyone who will take them, and throw them out the car window when I'm in a likely home for them. Someday they'll be more common and more will grow than people can dig up and carry away.

 

[zanduh]

You're right that forests need sparse trees to look good. People don't realize that until they start to assemble trees that won't fit together right. In fact the worse they are for stand-alone, the better they are for forests.

It's probably illegal, but to spread endangered, protected and/or diminishing stock around, I collect seeds and spread them in other like areas. Here, Butterfly Weed is protected but they disappear when someone sees them growing by the side of the road. I bought one and have them in my garden and collect the seeds, give them away to anyone who will take them, and throw them out the car window when I'm in a likely home for them. Someday they'll be more common and more will grow than people can dig up and carry away.

That’s really cool of you.

Tangentially, I know Yamadori is fun and a free-ish way to experience bonsai but I have put a lot of thought into the idea that if overdone in an area it is effectively robbing an area of the next generation of trees, especially more endangered trees. It’s impossible to enforce but it would be great if the bonsai community would plant a couple seeds or saplings saplings for each tree they dug out of its native area.

 

[Forsoothe!]

That’s really cool of you.

Tangentially, I know Yamadori is fun and a free-ish way to experience bonsai but I have put a lot of thought into the idea that if overdone in an area it is effectively robbing an area of the next generation of trees, especially more endangered trees. It’s impossible to enforce but it would be great if the bonsai community would plant a couple seeds or saplings saplings for each tree they dug out of its native area.

There are not enough of us to do any damage, even if all 13 of us were looting a single area.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Starfox
Thanks for posting the photos of the Tetraclinis in the landscape. It is very upright, but the Thuja are fairly upright too, so the Tetraclinis looks like a really narrow, sparse Thuja. I realize of course it is not a Thuja.

Interesting, it will be interesting to see how your plants develop.

 

[Starfox]

Well I will just be happy if I can get them past seedling stage for now, one step at a time and all that.

 

[Starfox]

OK so so I have found some more info on this species in regards to it's morphology and phylogeny. At least interesting to me.
It would seem that Juniperus is the most closely related genus than any other but beyond that it would seem that you can trace the genetics down through Africa back to a time when there was a land bridge between Australia, Antartica and Africa or in other terms Gondwana which split 170-180 million years ago. It appears that the Tetraclinis is the starting point of the Callitris and Actinostrobus sp. which are native conifers to Australia traveling via the
Widdringtonia sp. and separating thereafter.
Not bad research for back in 1913.

Contributions to the Life-history of Tetraclinis articulata, Masters, with some Notes on the Phylogeny of the Cupressoïdeae and Callitroïdeae.

n/a

zenodo.org

The good bits start at p. 22

So there you go, now you know what I have done all morning.
.