Tree Tuesday: Tipuana Tipu- Rosewood Tree

This beautiful Rosewood tree is standing right in front of my house offering shade to all the neighbors and visitors. The Tipuana is native to South America and is a rapid grower which can grow to a height of 25 meters but this one is only 9 meters tall.

Unfortunately this beauty is seen as an invasive tree in South Africa because it competes with our indigenous species and they cause a reduction in stream flow and this can have detrimental effect on the ecosystem. It has a very aggressive root system which is so strong it can lift up concrete. This deciduous tree has large massive branches which can give you a shade cover of about 20 meters.

The Rosewood tree has a beautiful spray of bright yellow flowers which blooms from early spring. It has brown 5-7cm seedpods which we used to call “Helicopters” as children. The leaves are dark green pinnate and about 24cm long, it has compound leaflets of 2-5cm long. During autumn it sheds all its leaves and seed pods.

“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.”
― Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

“Trees, for example, carry the memory of rainfall. In their rings we read ancient weather—storms, sunlight, and temperatures, the growing seasons of centuries. A forest shares a history, which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.”
― Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

Image Credit

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