Thank you so much, Carol! The walnuts and walnut trees (and all those bottles of ink…) are such constant companions here that I don’t usually think to take photos of them. Once I decided to write about them, I enjoyed the excuse to go outside and look at them in a new way!
Well..... Walnuts are not native to this continent, but they are grown commercially in cooler parts of Australia well South of my sub-tropical home. Many years ago I came across a mature Walnut tree in a remote valley down South - near an abandoned farmhouse. I didn't know what it was, but my companion did, and I have happy memory of opening the pods to get the nuts.
Australia has few nut trees - or should I say, few trees with edible nuts. There are very very few Australian native food plants that have been commercially cultivated. The stand out example is the Macadamia Tree. Macadamia's are by far the most successful - and are now grown in vast quantities in many parts of the world. I believe South Africa is now the largest producer, but all Macadamia's originated here, from seeds taken from the wild population. It's a rainforest tree, but it does not grow in dense groves. Macadamias in the wild are quite rare. I live near the Southern limit of their original range. Finding them in the wild requires a major expedition into extremely dense rainforest....
Oh - I should also give a shout out to the Bunya Pine! An ancient pine species - the Bunya's in the wild are found only in two small pockets of mountain rainforest a couple of hours drive from here. The female cones contain edible nuts, which were prized by the First Nation Aboriginal people.
The fun part about Bunya's is that the female cones are massive. They weigh as much as 10kg - 22 pounds. Since the trees typically grow to 40 or 50 metres (130 - 150 feet) in height - a falling Bunya cone is a life threatening event!!
We have one growing in the park just outside our front gate. I love it! But I don't walk underneath... :)
Oh! This is so interesting. Thank you, Dave. I didn't realize that macadamias are originally from Australia. And the Bunya pine! Now officially on my list of trees I'd like to see. Those cones sound amazing. Does the tree make cones every year, or do you notice fluctuations from one year to the next? It seems like it must be very "costly" for the tree to produce such large cones, especially if they're loaded with nuts like that. Do you know if there are non-human animals that also seek out the Bunya nuts? Now I'm curious... : ) Thanks for sharing a peek into a world I've never had a chance to know. Lisa
The Bunya's are fascinating - but so is the entire Araucariaceae family of conifers. Once widespread, the Araucariaceae family of conifers is now found only in the Southern hemisphere.
The Bunya is closely related to the better known Monkey Puzzle tree - found in botanic gardens around the world. You may well have seen one. Bunya's and Monkey Puzzles are from the Genus Araucaria, which gives its name to the entire wider family. The Araucaria family has two other Genera - the Agathis Genus (eg New Zealand's amazing Kauri trees), and the Genus Wollemia.
I think there are around 19 or 20 individual species in the Genus Araucaria and the Genus Agathis - but the Wollemia is truly special! Just one species - the Wollemi Pine - only discovered in 1994, in a remote canyon inland from my old home town. The Wollemi is sufficiently distinct from other Araucariaceae that it has been placed in a Genus of its own - a lonely freak survivor of an earlier age. After extensive surveys, only 60 trees have been found in the wild, in the canyon system where the first stand was identified.
You can probably tell that I'm mildly obsessed with the topic... The Wollemi's are so rare and endangered that the exact location of the wild population has been kept secret. However - to preserve the species - it has been widely propagated and you can buy seedlings and small potted trees quite easily. Harder to get in the USA - but still possible, according to Google.
However - back to your question about the Bunyas. They supposedly grow a few cones every year, but have a major crop every 3 or 4 years. The one in our park just seems to do the 3 year crop. I haven't seen anything in between - but it's a tall tree and hard to see what's happening up top.
Meg and I both have a general deep love of trees. On visits to your country we have made a special pilgrimage to see the Redwoods, the Sequoias and - our favourite - the Bristlecone Pines.
Your enthusiasm is infectious, and I appreciate all the information! I'm pretty sure I saw a monkey puzzle tree when I was in Ghana. The whole Araucaria family sounds fascinating! Makes me want to return to the southern hemisphere to see more.
I have a deep love of trees as well, and share your affection for bristlecones in particular. Our family traveled out west a few years ago, and visiting those pines was absolutely one of the highlights for me. If my husband and kids hadn't insisted I leave with them, I'd probably still be curled up next to one of those magnificent, gnarled, ancient beings. Lisa
Wonderful! It amazes me how few people - even lovers of trees - have heard of the Bristlecones. Here in Australia my Father taught me about them, when I was quite young, and I always wanted to see them. My Father, himself, never made it to the USA, so in part my visit was for my Dad as much as for me.
At the time Meg and I thought we would never be back in the USA, and our drive up into the White Mountains was a one and only opportunity.
Of course, life takes strange turns and we have been back to your country 4 or 5 times since then, with two more pilgrimages to the Patriarch Grove.
I have a poem and photo set about the place, here on Substack:
How wonderful that your father taught you about bristlecones, and that you’ve been able to visit them multiple times. We saw them in Nevada, and I have been wanting to go back ever since. Someday…
My Dad has a deep love of the natural world, which he passed on to me. I feel incredibly fortunate...
If you ever come across a copy, the remarkable mountaineer and photographer, Galen Rowell, devotes a chapter of his book "High and Wild" to a trip he made in winter to find the site - and remnants - of the ancient "Prometheus" Bristlecone chopped down by Donald Currey in 1964, which turned out to be almost 5,000 years old...
I can highly recommend the entire book, for that matter. The photography is wonderful but so is the writing - and the consistent respect for, and love of, mountains and wilderness generally.
Lovely photography and commentary, Lisa!
Carol L.
Thank you so much, Carol! The walnuts and walnut trees (and all those bottles of ink…) are such constant companions here that I don’t usually think to take photos of them. Once I decided to write about them, I enjoyed the excuse to go outside and look at them in a new way!
Beautiful! Both the words and images...
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Thank you, Dave! Do you have walnuts (or anything similar) there?
Hi Lisa
Well..... Walnuts are not native to this continent, but they are grown commercially in cooler parts of Australia well South of my sub-tropical home. Many years ago I came across a mature Walnut tree in a remote valley down South - near an abandoned farmhouse. I didn't know what it was, but my companion did, and I have happy memory of opening the pods to get the nuts.
Australia has few nut trees - or should I say, few trees with edible nuts. There are very very few Australian native food plants that have been commercially cultivated. The stand out example is the Macadamia Tree. Macadamia's are by far the most successful - and are now grown in vast quantities in many parts of the world. I believe South Africa is now the largest producer, but all Macadamia's originated here, from seeds taken from the wild population. It's a rainforest tree, but it does not grow in dense groves. Macadamias in the wild are quite rare. I live near the Southern limit of their original range. Finding them in the wild requires a major expedition into extremely dense rainforest....
Oh - I should also give a shout out to the Bunya Pine! An ancient pine species - the Bunya's in the wild are found only in two small pockets of mountain rainforest a couple of hours drive from here. The female cones contain edible nuts, which were prized by the First Nation Aboriginal people.
The fun part about Bunya's is that the female cones are massive. They weigh as much as 10kg - 22 pounds. Since the trees typically grow to 40 or 50 metres (130 - 150 feet) in height - a falling Bunya cone is a life threatening event!!
We have one growing in the park just outside our front gate. I love it! But I don't walk underneath... :)
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Oh! This is so interesting. Thank you, Dave. I didn't realize that macadamias are originally from Australia. And the Bunya pine! Now officially on my list of trees I'd like to see. Those cones sound amazing. Does the tree make cones every year, or do you notice fluctuations from one year to the next? It seems like it must be very "costly" for the tree to produce such large cones, especially if they're loaded with nuts like that. Do you know if there are non-human animals that also seek out the Bunya nuts? Now I'm curious... : ) Thanks for sharing a peek into a world I've never had a chance to know. Lisa
Hi Lisa
You are welcome :)
The Bunya's are fascinating - but so is the entire Araucariaceae family of conifers. Once widespread, the Araucariaceae family of conifers is now found only in the Southern hemisphere.
The Bunya is closely related to the better known Monkey Puzzle tree - found in botanic gardens around the world. You may well have seen one. Bunya's and Monkey Puzzles are from the Genus Araucaria, which gives its name to the entire wider family. The Araucaria family has two other Genera - the Agathis Genus (eg New Zealand's amazing Kauri trees), and the Genus Wollemia.
I think there are around 19 or 20 individual species in the Genus Araucaria and the Genus Agathis - but the Wollemia is truly special! Just one species - the Wollemi Pine - only discovered in 1994, in a remote canyon inland from my old home town. The Wollemi is sufficiently distinct from other Araucariaceae that it has been placed in a Genus of its own - a lonely freak survivor of an earlier age. After extensive surveys, only 60 trees have been found in the wild, in the canyon system where the first stand was identified.
You can probably tell that I'm mildly obsessed with the topic... The Wollemi's are so rare and endangered that the exact location of the wild population has been kept secret. However - to preserve the species - it has been widely propagated and you can buy seedlings and small potted trees quite easily. Harder to get in the USA - but still possible, according to Google.
However - back to your question about the Bunyas. They supposedly grow a few cones every year, but have a major crop every 3 or 4 years. The one in our park just seems to do the 3 year crop. I haven't seen anything in between - but it's a tall tree and hard to see what's happening up top.
Meg and I both have a general deep love of trees. On visits to your country we have made a special pilgrimage to see the Redwoods, the Sequoias and - our favourite - the Bristlecone Pines.
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Hi Dave,
Your enthusiasm is infectious, and I appreciate all the information! I'm pretty sure I saw a monkey puzzle tree when I was in Ghana. The whole Araucaria family sounds fascinating! Makes me want to return to the southern hemisphere to see more.
I have a deep love of trees as well, and share your affection for bristlecones in particular. Our family traveled out west a few years ago, and visiting those pines was absolutely one of the highlights for me. If my husband and kids hadn't insisted I leave with them, I'd probably still be curled up next to one of those magnificent, gnarled, ancient beings. Lisa
Wonderful! It amazes me how few people - even lovers of trees - have heard of the Bristlecones. Here in Australia my Father taught me about them, when I was quite young, and I always wanted to see them. My Father, himself, never made it to the USA, so in part my visit was for my Dad as much as for me.
At the time Meg and I thought we would never be back in the USA, and our drive up into the White Mountains was a one and only opportunity.
Of course, life takes strange turns and we have been back to your country 4 or 5 times since then, with two more pilgrimages to the Patriarch Grove.
I have a poem and photo set about the place, here on Substack:
https://davidkirkby.substack.com/p/bristlecone?r=471m47
Like you, Meg and I found it very hard to leave, each time.
Best Wishes - Dave :)
How wonderful that your father taught you about bristlecones, and that you’ve been able to visit them multiple times. We saw them in Nevada, and I have been wanting to go back ever since. Someday…
My Dad has a deep love of the natural world, which he passed on to me. I feel incredibly fortunate...
If you ever come across a copy, the remarkable mountaineer and photographer, Galen Rowell, devotes a chapter of his book "High and Wild" to a trip he made in winter to find the site - and remnants - of the ancient "Prometheus" Bristlecone chopped down by Donald Currey in 1964, which turned out to be almost 5,000 years old...
I can highly recommend the entire book, for that matter. The photography is wonderful but so is the writing - and the consistent respect for, and love of, mountains and wilderness generally.
Best Wishes - Dave