Things are getting a bit soggy here in Nth Central Victoria. We're camped high & dry in box/ironbark habitat. Nearby is a low lying area with river redgum. Three days ago there was an elderly gentleman & his wife camped down there. Luckily for them, they left because overnight it flooded & a huge tree fell right where they had been camped. At 6am this morning we heard what sounded like someone breaking kindling up & then down it came with a ground shaking thump bringing another tree with it.
Craig1 said
12:48 PM Oct 7, 2022
Not really a lot of grip for the size of the tree.
Magnarc said
01:08 PM Oct 7, 2022
No tap roots on gum trees hence incidence of falling over.
landy said
09:11 PM Oct 7, 2022
I would like to get into that with the chainsaw, it would be a good start on next years firewood.
yobarr said
10:06 PM Oct 7, 2022
Magnarc wrote:
No tap roots on gum trees hence incidence of falling over.
Interesting bit of information. Thanks Phil.
Nevd said
01:22 PM Oct 9, 2022
When I was in primary school I was taught to draw trees with a massive tap root. Shows how much the teacher knew. Never seen one with a tap root yet.
yobarr said
01:58 PM Oct 9, 2022
Nevd wrote:
When I was in primary school I was taught to draw trees with a massive tap root. Shows how much the teacher knew. Never seen one with a tap root yet.
I Degrassi this is not a river red gum but a white gum .
Greg 1 said
01:21 PM Oct 10, 2022
Magnarc wrote:
No tap roots on gum trees hence incidence of falling over.
That's not quite correct.
Gums are eucalypts which is a very large family of plants, and whilst there are shallow rooting varieties, most large gums have tap roots.
In fact the 5 main big gums of Western Australia, Jarrah, Marri, Karri, Tuart and Tingle, all have tap roots and some are massive, reaching down 60 feet or more.
Tap roots of these tress can be seen in some of the limestone caves in WA well underground.
Often though, tap roots do not grow directly downwards due to obstructions or how the tree was formed, so may travel outwards for a distance before heading downwards. I have recently had reason to drop a large Marri on my property and extract the stump, and the tap root on that did this as it was sitting on some A grade bauxite.
Things are getting a bit soggy here in Nth Central Victoria. We're camped high & dry in box/ironbark habitat. Nearby is a low lying area with river redgum. Three days ago there was an elderly gentleman & his wife camped down there. Luckily for them, they left because overnight it flooded & a huge tree fell right where they had been camped. At 6am this morning we heard what sounded like someone breaking kindling up & then down it came with a ground shaking thump bringing another tree with it.
No tap roots on gum trees hence incidence of falling over.
Interesting bit of information. Thanks Phil.
Some trees have massive tap root systems. Cheers.
That's not quite correct.
Gums are eucalypts which is a very large family of plants, and whilst there are shallow rooting varieties, most large gums have tap roots.
In fact the 5 main big gums of Western Australia, Jarrah, Marri, Karri, Tuart and Tingle, all have tap roots and some are massive, reaching down 60 feet or more.
Tap roots of these tress can be seen in some of the limestone caves in WA well underground.
Often though, tap roots do not grow directly downwards due to obstructions or how the tree was formed, so may travel outwards for a distance before heading downwards. I have recently had reason to drop a large Marri on my property and extract the stump, and the tap root on that did this as it was sitting on some A grade bauxite.