In the nature that surrounds us, breathtakingly unique phenomena are often encountered. Miracles happen almost everywhere, and for many phenomena people still do not have any reasonable explanations.
But most amazing phenomena we have the opportunity to observe only in certain places - where there are special conditions created by nature.
The birthplace of eucalyptus is the island of Mindanao
Take, for example, the Philippine Islands. This is one of those places where nature does not skimp on miracles, and people can enjoy incredible phenomena everywhere.
The Philippines has given the world entire forests of colorful, bright trees, when you look at them you understand that you are in a fairy tale. These trees are called, this miracle of nature is rainbow eucalyptus.
Since childhood, we all believe that the birthplace of a tree such as eucalyptus is Australia. But this is not entirely true.
If we take the rainbow eucalyptus, then its homeland is the Philippine island called Mindanao. In these places it may seem that a wizard took a huge brush and painted all the trees with multi-colored paints!
Eucalyptus bark
Rainbow eucalyptus gets its name from its bark. It actually resembles a rainbow and shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, brown, blue, violet, purple and green.
It is for this very reason that the word rainbow became the most suitable name for these amazing trees.
It fully characterizes this rich spectrum of colors and shades of bark. The tree can reach a height of 75 meters, and the trunk diameter is more than two meters.
Eucalyptus and its coloring
If any of you manage to see this tree up close, you will immediately get the feeling that its bark seems to be painted with multi-colored paints. It’s as if an abstract artist tried his best here.
But the whole point is that only Mother Nature worked here - she created all these incredible spots and stripes.
All these multi-colored tints are intended by nature to show the age of a given tree.
The thing is that the bark of these trees often peels off, but not completely as a whole plate, but only in small strips.
At the place where the piece peeled off, a bright greenish spot instantly forms, some time passes, and the bright green spot becomes darker, changes its original color first to purple, then yellow, brown, blue, and last but not least this the area becomes bright orange or brownish-crimson in color.
Where does eucalyptus grow?
Rainbow eucalyptus is the only species of this tree that grows in the northern hemisphere, it was discovered more than a hundred years ago. Time passed, and the seeds from this plant were brought to South America, China, Malaysia, and many other places globe with a temperate climate.
There they took root well, thanks to the fact that this tree tolerates the local climate well, which cannot be said about its other species.
Despite the possibility of existing in temperate climate In its homeland, the Philippine Islands, rainbow eucalyptus grows in the humid tropics and is an evergreen tree.
Today this wonderful tree can be seen in New Britain, the forests of New Guinea, Sulawesi, and Seram.
Eucalyptus height
But it was not only the color, unique in every sense of the word, that brought fame to this tree. It has another unique feature - its height.
A large number of rainbow eucalyptus trees reach a height of seventy meters, but this growth is not the limit for this tree.
You may not believe it, but the height of individual specimens can reach ninety meters. And one more fact is truly amazing - in a year such a tree grows no less than ten meters. This is a real record in the plant world.
It turns out that we live in a phenomenal world, the mysteries of which have not yet been even half solved, but new miracles are revealed to people again and again.
Philippine canarium (Canarium ovatum) is one of the canarium species. It is an evergreen tree reaching up to 20 m in height.
The leaves are pinnately compound, smooth, shiny, entire, consisting of 5-9 small oval leaves with a pointed tip.
The flowers are yellowish or light brown, collected in dense panicles. They grow from the axils of leaves and on the top of shoots.
Canarium fruits
The fruit of the canarium is an oval or cone-shaped drupe up to 8 cm long, weighing up to 50 g. Covered with a thin, smooth black-red skin.
The pulp is dense, fibrous, with an astringent taste. Inside there is a brown fusiform bone covered with a hard shell. The seed contains a white, dense kernel with a nutty flavor.
Some individuals have bitter, fibrous kernels with an unpleasant odor.
Cultivation of canarium philippines
Philippine canarium is cultivated in the countries of Southeast Asia and the Philippine Islands, for which the plant got its name. The crop is grown commercially to produce seeds with edible kernels called pili nuts.
Application of canarium
The kernels of the fruits of this plant are used as food. When raw they resemble fried pumpkin seed, after roasting they acquire the taste of nuts or almonds. Fried canarium is added to various dishes, baked goods, and chocolate. Oil is obtained from raw kernels.
Young shoots and fruit fiber are also edible. The shoots are used in salads, and the fiber is used after boiling and drying. Boiled fruit fiber has an oily texture, which is reminiscent of sweet potatoes. By nutritional value superior to avocado.
The nut shell burns well, so it serves as fuel. A resin is extracted from the bark of the tree and is used for economic purposes.
The wood of this tree has a beautiful pinkish tint, has no defects, and is easy to dry and process. Packing boxes, sheathing, flooring and other products are made from it.
Philippines (Republic of the Philippines)
Territory - 299.7 thousand km 2. Population: 43.7 million (est. 1977). The climate is subequatorial, oceanic, and in some places monsoonal. The average annual temperature is 25-26°. The amount of precipitation is 1000-4000 mm per year, in the internal valleys - 800-1000 mm. Devastating typhoons are frequent.
The forest fund is represented by tropical rainforests, which occupy 46% of the country's territory. There are more than 3 thousand tree species, of which 60 species are of commercial value.
The forests of the Philippines are divided into several categories. In terms of area (up to 75% of the forest fund of all islands) and wood reserves, the most significant are tropical rainforests located in the lower belt of mountains up to a height of 500-800 m. They consist of complex multi-tiered tree stands with a height of the upper tier of 40-50 m. In the forests there are many large evergreen trees, palms and vines of economic importance. Valuable rocks are harvested in them, giving hard wood various shades - from light yellow to dark brown. The most common species are representatives of the dipterocarp family from the Shorea genus (they make up almost 50% of the stock of these forests): tankhile, or Shorea polysperma, Mayapis, or Shorea palosapis (Sh. palosapis), red luan, or Black Shorea (Sh. negrosensis), Guiho, or Shorea Guiso (Sh. guiso), Almon, or Shorea Almon (Sh. Almon), as well as Pentacme - white luan (Pentacme contorta), which provides almost 20% of the reserve of dipterocarp forests; from the genus dipterocarpus - apitong, or dipterocarpus grandiflorus (D. grandiflorus), with hard wood widely used in the construction of buildings; from the genus Hopea - yakal with very hard and durable wood used in the construction of bridges. Legumes include large narra trees, or Indian pterocarpus (Pterocarpus indicus), as well as erythrophleum, or Philippine mahogany (Erythrophleum densiflorum).
In drier areas, mainly on limestone soils, sparse tropical Vitex forests of Vitex parviflora are common; Other valuable species are also found there: pterocarpus, Pahudia rhomboidea, Intsia bijuga, Albizzia acle, etc.
Above 800 - 900 m there are tropical mountain forests dominated by evergreen oaks (Quercus luzoniensis, etc.), myrtles, maples, ancient conifers (Podocarpus glaucus and P. pilgerii), Wallich yew, tree ferns (Cyathea contaminans, etc. ); in the undergrowth there are evergreen shrubs, in the ground cover there are numerous stemless ferns, mosses, and lichens. The belt of mountain moss forests is closed by low-growing oaks, eugenia (Eugenia acrophila), thorny evergreen shrubs, including individual trees and groves of yew (Taxus wallichiana), podocarpus, and maples (Acer niveum). Tree branches are covered with mosses and lichens.
In some places, especially in the northern part of the island of Luzon, at an altitude of 1000 to 2000 m, pure pine forests grow, consisting of island pine (Pinus insularis) and white pine (P. mercusi), the wood of which is widely used for harvesting timber (props). ), used in gold mines. In the mountains, the coniferous species almaciga, or white agathis (Agathis alba), is found, which produces valuable copal resin for the production of drying oil, varnishes, linoleum coating, and is also used in the production of parchment paper, sealing wax, soap, etc.
River mouths and gently sloping shores in the intertidal zone are characterized by mangrove forests and thickets of Avicennia officinalis, Rhisophora mucronata, Bruguiera parviflora and Sonneratia spp. The nipa palm is often found along the edges of mangrove forests. Mangrove wood is used for fuel and bark is used to produce tanning extracts. Along the sandbanks behind the tidal strip, coastal forests have been preserved in many places, consisting of Terminalia catappa, Erythrina variegata, Barringtonia asiatica, Calophyllum inophyllum, Casuarina equisetifolia ), as well as roofing pandanus (Pandanus tectorius).
A significant area is occupied by coconut palm plantations, total which reached more than 170 million trees. The collection of copra from them amounted to 1.7-1.8 million tons.
The textile banana (Musa textilis) has been cultivated in the Philippines since 1768. From its leaves a strong fiber is obtained - “Manila hemp”, or abaca (collection in 1975 - 125 thousand tons), which is exported in significant quantities. Rubber plants, coffee trees, edible bananas (harvest - 1.2 million tons), pineapples, sugar cane, and rice are also grown.
The country's forest fund is 15.9 million hectares, including forest area - 13.8 million hectares, of which 12.7 million hectares are occupied by closed forests. Most of the forests (96%) belong to the state, the rest (4%) are owned by private owners. The forests are dominated by mixed deciduous trees: they occupy 98.5% of closed forests. Mangroves account for 450 thousand hectares, or about 3%, conifers - 205 thousand, or 1.5%.
The total wood supply (with a tree diameter exceeding 15 cm at breast height) is 1990 million m 3. The average wood supply per 1 hectare is 124 m3, of which in coniferous forests - 70 m3, in deciduous forests - 124 m3. Timber is harvested both for the country's domestic needs and for export. The total volume of timber harvesting in 1973 amounted to 34.9 million m 3, wood, including commercial timber - 13.8 million m 3 (for export - 7.7 million m 3). It is used to produce lumber, plywood, wood boards, cardboard, and paper. In addition to wood, the country's forests provide a variety of forest products: tanning extract betel, resins, rosin, gutta-percha, rubber, oils, rattan, fibers, wax, medicinal raw materials (in particular, for the treatment of leprosy, rheumatism, for neutralizing poisons, exterminating harmful insects, etc. .d.).
Forestry activities are managed by the Forestry Bureau (Forestry Development Bureau). The country's territory is divided into forest districts with departments in administrative centers, to which forest stations and forest nurseries are subordinate. Protective forests are allocated along the mountain tops. Forest crops occupy more than 175 thousand hectares, including pine crops - 40 thousand hectares. Plantings are carried out annually (1972-1974) on an area of 12-13 thousand hectares.
For security purposes natural resources Based on the 1953 law, the Development Committee was organized in the Philippines national parks, at which 42 were created national parks(235 thousand hectares) and several reserves. The largest - national park Apo (77 thousand hectares) on the island of Mindanao. It protects tropical forests with a large number of orchids. Parks have been identified on the country's largest island - Luzon. These are Banajao San Cristobal, Bicol, Bulusan, Data, Isarog, etc. The area of each park is 5-10 thousand hectares. They protect tropical evergreen, dipterocarp, pine, palm, moist mountain coniferous forests with tree ferns, volcanic mountains with active volcanoes, etc.
No, this tree was not covered in paint. This is how nature intended it.
Very bright, very beautiful and no less unusual trees can be seen in the Philippine Islands. These trees are called rainbow eucalyptus.
The word rainbow is in the title of this amazing plant It is not present by chance - their bark shimmers with almost all the colors of the rainbow: yellow, orange, blue, green, purple and brown. Even with a close acquaintance with the eucalyptus, it seems that its bark was painted by an abstract artist. However, multi-colored stripes and spots are of natural origin and even serve as something of an indicator of the age of the bark.
Rainbow Eucalyptus (lat. Eucalyptus deglupta) (Eng. Rainbow Eucalyptus, Rainbow Gum, Mindanao Gum)- an amazing tree that grows up to 70 meters in height, and its bark can be colored yellow, green, orange and even purple. Rainbow eucalyptus is the only type of eucalyptus that grows in the northern hemisphere. The natural habitats of this tree, i.e. its range lies in Indonesia, New Guinea and the Philippines. Currently, rainbow eucalyptus can be found in South America, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China and some other countries where this tree is also cultivated.
In 1929, rainbow eucalyptus was first discovered in the Hawaiian Islands, where individual trees can reach 75 meters in height. The most remarkable and unusual phenomenon- the presence of multi-colored bark is explained by the fact that this same bark exfoliates in different time, and its different colors are unique indicators of the age of the bark. When a tree has recently shed its bark, the new outer bark at this location on the trunk will be a bright green color. Over a long period of time, the bark gradually darkens and changes its color from blue to purple. Later still, it becomes dark burgundy or orange.
Thus, almost all the colors of the rainbow can be found on the trunk. Looking at the photograph of the trunk of a rainbow eucalyptus, one gets the impression that this pattern was painted by some abstract artist and one cannot believe at all that this is a beautiful creation of nature.
Unfortunately, rainbow eucalyptus trees, despite all their beauty, are not protected at all, since they are widely used throughout the world to create high-quality white paper. This is the most ideal tree, the processing of which produces a special ingredient for creating paper. In this case, eucalyptus wood is mechanically and chemically processed into a special dry fibrous material, which is later soaked in water and used in the technological process.
The conversion of wood into paper has increased in the last few years. Of all the eucalyptus trees processed into paper, only 16% were specially grown. 9% are old forests, and 75% are forests of the third generation and higher. These trees grew for decades to eventually be processed into small amounts of paper.
In addition, the pleasant, light-colored wood of rainbow eucalyptus is successfully used in small shipbuilding and furniture production. It is because of stacks of paper sheets, tables and boats that hundreds of trees are cut down every year around the world, affecting not only new plantings, but also natural forests.
However, in Lately There is also a positive trend of increased cultivation of rainbow eucalyptus and reforestation. If you want to see a living Rainbow Eucalyptus in all its glory, you need to travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea or the Philippines - the natural habitats of this tree. However, the tree has also been cultivated in South America, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China and some other countries
Much more interesting is the question of what makes the trunks of rainbow eucalyptus trees so bright and unusual. This seems like a real miracle. It was as if the trunk had been doused in several layers of different paints, and they were chosen specifically for the most contrasting ones.
But if you look closely, it becomes clear that this is the result of a kind of “molting” of the thin bark. We can observe a similar phenomenon in our latitudes in the pine forest. Like pine trees, rainbow eucalyptus replaces old bark, which peels off in narrow strips, curling and falling off, with new bark.
But the color of the rainbow eucalyptus bark directly depends on age. The young bark has a bright salad shade, gradually it darkens, becoming dark green, but the color change is not limited to this, and now the bark strips gradually fade into bluish-silver, almost blue, purple, from which - into purple, orange, darkening into eventually to dark burgundy.
It is this stunning play of bark colors and the almost fantastic beauty of rainbow eucalyptus that can become the starting point in man's quest to preserve such magnificent trees. Now they have already begun to be grown simply near the house. And who wouldn’t want to have their own rainbow outside their window?
Rainbow eucalyptus native to the Philippine island of Mindanao. Not only this fact is noteworthy. Like other eucalyptus trees, the bark of this tree tends to peel off (usually in narrow strips). In place of the old bark, a new one is formed. As it ages, the bark changes color. At first it is bright green and dark green, then the shades turn from bluish to purple, the next color is pink-orange. In its most advanced stage, the bark turns brownish-crimson.
In its homeland - the Philippines - rainbow eucalyptus grows in humid tropical forest. It is an evergreen tree reaching a height of 36 m. In 1929, eucalyptus was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands and then to South Florida.
Since the mid-20th century, other countries began to grow rainbow eucalyptus: Brazil, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Fiji, Honduras, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, China. Despite the fact that the surface of rainbow eucalyptus comes in a variety of colors, its wood is the most common in color - light, which darkens over time, becoming red-brown. Most of the world's rainbow eucalyptus plantations are dedicated to pulp production. The wood is also used to make chipboard, fiberboard and wood wool. Eucalyptus wood can be used to make furniture, floors, and boats.
Also, the rainbow tree is also one of the tallest in the world; it is, of course, far from the giant sequoias growing in the United States, but they easily conquer the 70-meter mark, and some specimens reached almost 90 meters. Eucalyptus trees also grow very quickly - up to 10 meters per year.
