Gardening with Gael - Beautiful form gives pleasure

 

Once upon a time we had a local nursery woman who propagated the native plants which grew in our area. When she left the district she sold all the plants and some of us were lucky enough to buy some of the less well known species. One of the plants I purchased was a streblus. This is a native tree I am very unfamiliar with and the one I have is still the only one I have seen.

I bought it as a very small plant and Julia told me it required sun or semi-shade and a sheltered position. I planted it in exactly that position, sheltered by a large totara and with room to grow.

There are three varieties endemic to New Zealand: Streblus banksii which is found in lowland forests from Mangonui to as far south as Marlborough, streblus smithii which is endemic to the Three Kings Is-lands and streblus hetero-phyllus which is found throughout New Zealand.

By a process of elimination I am sure mine is a streblus banksii. The bright green glossy leaves are oval and attached alternately along the stem. At no time did it have the fiddle shaped leaves typical of the heterophyllus. Because the smithii is found only on the Three Kings I doubt that she would have had it in her nursery.

One of the most attractive features of this tree is the way the branches are layered giv-ing the tree a tiered appearance. This look began in its juvenile stage and has continued in the seven years it has been growing and the form of the tree gives me a great deal of pleasure. Luckily it is happy in its position. Smithii and heterophyl-lus both grow to three or four metres whereas banksii will grow to four or five metres.

I planted the tree without much idea of its mature size along the edge of one of the paths. I realise that at some stage I am going to have to reorganise a portion of the garden on the other side of the path and put a bend in the path to accommodate the tree. The natural form is so beautiful I am unable to consider pruning it in any way.

The common name is ‘milk tree’ because of the milky sap exuded from under the bark or when a branch is broken. As yet I have not noticed the flowers or the red berries that are reputed to follow the flowers. Propagation is by seeds or cuttings. This is a tree I would love to have more of.

---