To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] It's not the soil, it's Australian Pines
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 21:39:59 -0600
Stephen, Good thing you finally mentioned the trees, I think this website
about sums up all you need to know about Austrialian pines except how much
it will cost to get rid of them:
http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Casuarina_equisetifolia.htm
And here are some comments from another website:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2184/ crowding out the native plants such as mangroves and littering the ground
with it's seedlings, causing it to spread, as well as it's needles, which
smother up vegetation by forming a thick "mat" above the soil and releasing
special chemicals that hurt vegetation, and finally with it's roots, that
raise the low swamp vegetation by creating small - to- large, highish, sandy
ridges so that mangroves can't grow there, also allowing over non-natives
such as Brazilian Peppertree to spread) and can compete with some other
troublesome exotics and is now banned here in Florida and is on the EPPC
Plant List One despite it's attractive looks.
And even worse, the plant can fall over very easily in hurricanes and damage
property and homes and buildings as well as possibly hurt or kill people and
wildlife, and also the trees can cause massive erosion along shorelines with
it's thick but shallow, invasive roots. If you have these trees, get rid of
them as soon as possible, or try to do so!
it is quite invasive also on the Island of Hawaii, though not slated for
biological control at this time either.
There is a State Park (McKenzie) in the SE Coastal area of Puna on this
island where the trees have taken over......no grass grows and the "pine
needles" have formed a thick carpet that covers almost the whole area of the
park. An eerie site and feeling as it also cushions most noises. Even though
there might be other people around, the whole effect is quite lonely feeling
and ghostly.