Botany Nerds Ahoy

Sprout wrote:

Gah, sorry AW, done in by their inaccuracy, you're too smart for my quiz! Always appreciate your added facts too, so interesting, you should write a book.

Job well done if you made Alfred think.

This was a cool find.

A 2m long Oarfish found washed up on the beach near Strahan.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-03/tas-rare-oarfish-found-on-strahan...

Harbinger of doom, run for the hills!

Tearymasseuse. Hi mate.

Thanks for posting that video.

Funny you post that, we must have had the same thoughts lately.

So, which country in the world has the tallest trees ? The US does.

The Californian Redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens ) from the Cupressaceae family is the tallest tree in the world at present.

The largest tree in the world ( by volume and enormity) is the Giant Redwood
( Sequoiadendron giganteum ) also from the Cupressaceae family.

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit both species and stand in awe at something that originally arose from a very small seed.

Both these trees are Gymnosperms ( naked seed), they evolved well before current day flowering plants ( Angiosperms).

To understand the simple tree of life for plant evolution, it goes like this;

Starting with simple cells akin to bacteria ( Cyanobacteria) , early photosynthetic plants that evolved in the ocean, the first to liberate oxygen into our current atmosphere.
Next in the evolutionary line is ferns and allies, liverworts, bryophytes, club mosses etc, still no flowers along the evolutionary pathway, following them is the Gymnosperms, the conifers (cone bearing), Cycads, Macrozamias etc., still no flowers until we come into a period around 135 million years ago where Angiosperms (flowering plants) enter our world and proliferate still to this day.

The tallest flowering ( Angiosperm) plant on earth today’s is our own ,
Eucalyptus regnans Mountain Ash.

Historical evidence in Australia shows us that at some stage back almost a century ago , Mountain Ash was the tallest tree in the world, exceeding the height of modern day Californian Redwoods.

Major problem is that most of the giant Mountain Ash were chopped down in forests east of Melbourne, Otway Ranges and East Gippsland, a smear on society if there was ever one.

I bought a book a few years ago about trains that operated in the Otway Ranges , Victoria. An area my parents use to live and ride some of those early trains.
I’m not a train spotter or enthusiast by any means, I do like history.

The sole reason I purchased this book was my eye caught something in a photo that really grabbed me.
Here was evidence of the once enormous Mountain Ash trees.
I stare at it and wonder all kinds of thoughts , regrets etc,

If you look at the photo of the tree take the time to look at the basal trunk area, it’s gigantic, a trunk with that girth tells us this tree was incredibly tall, just one of many of the tallest trees that no longer furnish our landscape.

Such a shame. AW.