Poplar trees; Ginkgo biloba; Ceanothus
On Wednesday last (26th April) five Populus sp. (Poplar) trees were dug up & reduced to log size all because of development next to a school in Ballinteer, which is close to Dundrum in south Dublin. To the right of the trees a fifty foot wide section of grass was skimmed off. For the past 16 years I and many other people have watched these magnificent deciduous trees come into leaf right about this time of year. Depending on the weather the Poplar trees might not fully leaf out until the second week of May. Why is such development always so destructive to our precious environment? Regularly I saw magpies & jackdaws perched on the branches of these Poplar trees. Not to mention the countless insects & other wildlife creatures who were using these trees as their home. Ofcourse one can go on and on about proper planning, environmental impact studies etc, etc, but at the end of the day it all boils down to this simple fact: Ireland does not have a credible environmental agency & if it does exist the people with the final say are subject to 'influence' from the developers & other interested parties.Ginkgo biloba (the Maiden Hair tree) has been forming leaf blossoms over the last three weeks. This deciduous conifer is considered a 'living fossil' due to it being in existence at the time of the dinosaurs which was approximately 250 million years ago. It is thought that some dinosaurs ate leaves from this tree species. Certainly the dinosaurs who were herbivores (vegetarian) might well have feasted on the nutrituous leaves of this tree. And I did say 'conifer' - Ginkgo, eventhough it sheds it's leaves (deciduous), is a member of the evergreen or coniferous family. There are two lovely specimens located in Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin in Dublin. You wont see Ginkgo planted in many front gardens due partly to it being slow growing & not readily available in plant nurseries (they prefer to grow only 'quick return' or 'quick profit' plants. With a maximum heigh of 100ft & a spread of 25ft Ginkgo biloba is not a specimen tree for a small garden. If you have a garden of 1.5 or more acres then please consider planting this beautiful tree.
Ceanothus sp. (Californian Lilac) is an evergreen shrub that is now opening it's fragrant, mid-blue flowers. The flowers buds which are at first a distinct 'ruby colour' (or red wine colour) began appearing over the last three weeks (early April). There is a fine specimen of this shrub just beside where the Poplar trees were up until a few days ago growing quite happily. Hopefully the Ceanothus will survive the onslaught of this 'senseless' development.
posted by Thomas @ 11:40 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home