Thursday, January 20, 2011

Inadvertent Coppicing.


The other day I was out front of the shop looking for twigs and I zeroed in on this particular tree in the corner of the lot. It looked like a volunteer, seeds blown in or dropped by birds.  I have no idea what the species is, some sort of non-native evergreen whose seed escaped from somebody's yard.

Anyway, when I examined the tree more closely, I found out that someone once before had decided that they didn't want the tree that close to the building and had chopped it down leaving a 6 inch stump protruding out of the ground.  The root system was still intact and of course sent up new sprouts which now are two to three inches in diameter and 15 feet tall.  Inadvertent coppicing.

2 comments:

Jon said...

Looks a lot like African Sumac (Rhus Lancea). If it is, it does not even make good firewood. Green and Supple it is, but when crafted into something all it does is crack and twist when dry. Vary brittle when dry.

Wolfgang Brinck said...

I'll be taking some closeups of it and posting it for better id possibilities.

I looked at a little book I have of introduced trees of California and it looks a little like the pictures of Black Acacia, an import from Australia.

stay tuned.