Arboretums
Discussion
An arboretum can provide a particular kind of urban greenspace, where visitors can walk among a variety of trees and other plants from particular regions, or from a particular family (eg eucalypts). They provide contact with nature, and a chance to witness and enjoy a region's biodiversity, for city residents and visitors alike. They can also be seed banks for the propagation of various species across a city.
Readings
Eucalyptus Man
Earthbeat, 22 May 2004
Dean Nicolle has established a eucalypt arboretum on his property at Currency Creek, not far from the mouth of the River Murray in South Australia. 6,000 trees and 900 different species. “I’ve always wanted to grow or try to grow every species of eucalypt there is, and that’s around 1,000-odd species. … The diversity in eucalypt bark, it’s amazing. You can have the flakey papery barks like this, and you have the real rough hard barks, and then you have the completely smooth bark, like the lemon-scented gums behind us here, which is actually quite closely related to these yellow bloodwoods, but have a completely different bark type, where it’s just completely smooth.”
Currency Creek Arboretum - Eucalyptus Research Centre
Unlike many arboreta, multiple plants have been planted out from each seed plant (usually four), giving a more accurate representation of the taxon's phenetic and genetic variation. Information on all collections at CCA has been recorded since the projects beginning. Such records include survival, health and growth rates, time to first bud initiation and flowering, and the potential of all collections for various uses.
Currency Creek Arboretum
Directory of Australian Botanic Gardens and Arboreta
Area: 32 ha. Location: Currency Creek, South Australia. Entry Fees: None. Open: Any day by appointment only.
Waite Arboretum
Located in Adelaide, the Waite Arboretum occupies 30 hectares and contains about 2,200 specimens representing more than 800 species in 200 genera, all growing under natural annual rainfall of 626 mm. Every tree is labelled and mapped. Special collections include eucalypts, pears, banksias and oaks.
2007.7.5