I just love this tree but dont know what it is, it was here when we bought the place. It is quick growing and has trippled in height in six years.

shellbell said:

I just love this tree but dont know what it is, it was here when we bought the place. It is quick growing and has trippled in height in six years.

does it flower?

does it flower? If so can you describe the event?

roughbarked said:

does it flower? If so can you describe the event?

No, nothing, nada, and no seed pods either. Roots run outwards with some showing above ground (not a tap root) and it threw a sucker about two years ago.

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

azedarach.. :|

http://anpsa.org.au/m-aze.html

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

Couldnt get a clear shot of the leaves but checked out the link and I think we have a winner. My nephew and Dad both suggested white cedar but were not sure. Good to know it will flower one, how many years would I have to wait?

shellbell said:

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

Couldnt get a clear shot of the leaves but checked out the link and I think we have a winner. My nephew and Dad both suggested white cedar but were not sure. Good to know it will flower one, how many years would I have to wait?

not much longer. The flowering is something to wax poetic about.. read the confessions of a beachcomber.
The resulting berries are a pain in the donkey.. The hairy caterpillars give a reason to remove the tree, if it is common in the locality. The hairy grubs can only walk a kilometre or so. Therefore if your tree is isolated, it may never become infested.

shellbell said:

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

Couldnt get a clear shot of the leaves but checked out the link and I think we have a winner. My nephew and Dad both suggested white cedar but were not sure. Good to know it will flower one, how many years would I have to wait?

Don’t rejoice too much just yet, once it starts flowering you’ll have hundreds of babies to dispose of – the seeds are extremely viable. It also brings the white cedar moth caterpillars, which have a tendency not only to decimate the foliage of your trees, but to march through your house in a flood over the course of a few weeks if your house happens to be between them and the tree. They have also been known to pupate in your wardrobe and you don’t find out until you go to put on that nice winter jacket only to wonder what the dreadful itchiness is…
Shame, very attractive trees.

Links to our not so friendly caterpillars…
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/lyma/reducta.html
http://www.amnet.net.au/~mpeaty/pests1.html

hortfurball said:

shellbell said:

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

Couldnt get a clear shot of the leaves but checked out the link and I think we have a winner. My nephew and Dad both suggested white cedar but were not sure. Good to know it will flower one, how many years would I have to wait?

Don’t rejoice too much just yet, once it starts flowering you’ll have hundreds of babies to dispose of – the seeds are extremely viable. It also brings the white cedar moth caterpillars, which have a tendency not only to decimate the foliage of your trees, but to march through your house in a flood over the course of a few weeks if your house happens to be between them and the tree. They have also been known to pupate in your wardrobe and you don’t find out until you go to put on that nice winter jacket only to wonder what the dreadful itchiness is…
Shame, very attractive trees.

Links to our not so friendly caterpillars…
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/lyma/reducta.html
http://www.amnet.net.au/~mpeaty/pests1.html

yes it is a shame that these vey attractive and hardy natives need some common sense applied to keep them far enough apart to avoid the dreaded lurgy of the caterpillars.. but hey.. the seeds re so abundant that one may consider lopping the trees as they start producing them.. However the shade is often so promising that people put up with the problems.. only so far.. The berries are toxic.. beware of that.

If you happened to be a prune or almond orchardist, you could use the shaker judiciously to remove the berries in an easier gather up and destroy mood.

roughbarked said:

The berries are toxic.. beware of that.

Yes, to dogs and children if eaten in large quantities. Can’t believe I forgot to mention that with you having two young girls!

My younger dog used to love to scoff the berries and I had to rake them up constantly (once or twice a day) and supervise her outside meanderings when they were in fruit to try to avoid the silly creature becoming sick or worse. That was my last house though so hasn’t been a problem for a few years (probably why I forgot to mention it)

hortfurball said:

roughbarked said:

The berries are toxic.. beware of that.

Yes, to dogs and children if eaten in large quantities. Can’t believe I forgot to mention that with you having two young girls!

My younger dog used to love to scoff the berries and I had to rake them up constantly (once or twice a day) and supervise her outside meanderings when they were in fruit to try to avoid the silly creature becoming sick or worse. That was my last house though so hasn’t been a problem for a few years (probably why I forgot to mention it)

http://anpsa.org.au/jpg3/M-azed.jpg The perfume alone is worth allowing them to flower However a ladder and secateurs will remove the flowering clusters as they turn to berries. problem gone.

The tree itself responds well to hard pruning, just to keep it at accesible ladder height to keep the berries down.. All in all a hard work tree or a lazy man’s pestiferous species.

I have a couple of white cedar here, one mature and one smaller one. The perfume of the flowers is lovely, especially of an evening. The berries disappear pretty quickly due to the local populations of galahs and cockatoos and I have not had any caterpillar problems as yet.

bluegreen said:

I have a couple of white cedar here, one mature and one smaller one. The perfume of the flowers is lovely, especially of an evening. The berries disappear pretty quickly due to the local populations of galahs and cockatoos and I have not had any caterpillar problems as yet.

Yes, the berries are not toxic to birds and as long as the birds outnumber the berries.. no problemo.

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

That’s what I would have said.

shellbell said:

roughbarked said:

six years may be too young yet.. no closeups of the leaves? The bark suggests Melia azeradach

Couldnt get a clear shot of the leaves but checked out the link and I think we have a winner. My nephew and Dad both suggested white cedar but were not sure. Good to know it will flower one, how many years would I have to wait?

Ours flowered almost immediately. Not that that’s any help to you. I also understand that every bit of the tree is poisonous.

Should be no problem with the berries, we have more than our fair share of birds in the area. As for the kids, the tree is in the front yard and they are not allowed out there unsupervised. Havnt seen another one around here so hopefully we will miss out on the caterpillers.

shellbell said:

Should be no problem with the berries, we have more than our fair share of birds in the area. As for the kids, the tree is in the front yard and they are not allowed out there unsupervised. Havnt seen another one around here so hopefully we will miss out on the caterpillers.

Up here the seeds sprout very easily. I am forever pulling out seedlings in our yard from next doors tree. They don’t know it but their patch of man made bush (down the side of our house) has about 50 White Cedars getting bigger each day.