Howzit guys, I've just bought a house with a 2000m2 garden, neighbouring a nature reserve. The garden needs work, but I'm on a budget as well (no landscaper). I look around at all the trees with their different leaf shapes and seeds, and try googling, and get absolutely nowhere with identifying what they are! I also have absolutely no clue what would be good to start planting, keeping it fully indigenous of course. I feel exactly like I did when I was a planted tank noob! So I'm looking for an APSA equivalent but for trees and stuff (not flower beds).. Anyone here able to recommend a local forum? I know there's quite a few clever botanist type people on here so I'm looking at you for suggestions
So, epic fail - assuming that APSA equivalent forums actually exist on any topic other than cars and guns (??). The best I could find was this http://www.gardenerforum.co.za but seems to have had a serious drop-off in traffic a year ago (to basically zero). Soooo.. Now with my expectations significantly lowered, can anyone recommend any good web resources for identifying trees, and deciding which indigenous trees to plant? I have a feeling that I'm still gonna be going round in circles on google for a while, thinking of different synonyms for shapes of leaves.....
Drop a few pics on here. I'm sure some guys can id a few trees. If needs be I can go dust of my old taxonomy textbooks.
Here's some invasive weed type things Sorry, photos on full sunlight aren't the greatest.. Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk
Here's some trees.. I'm sorry if some of these are obvious, I just know so little about plants and putting 'pointy shaped spade leaf' into Google just isn't conclusive.. Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk
Second to last one is a Tibouchina. Nice little tree, but it's not indigenous (think it's from Brazil).
@RoGe: does the first one have thorns on the leaves and branches? If so, when I was growing up we used to pick those red seeds from the seed pods and this was a tree we called the lucky bean tree. Usually sends out red flame flowers once a year and then you get the red seed beans in brown pods. I just googled and there are quite a few varieties - Coral tree is one of them too. If there are no flowers, wait til they come up and then you can identify it properly.
get yourself a nice little book on indigenous plants there are tons of them.try your local 2nd hand bookshop first that's where I go first.
Thanks so much, seems Tibouchina urvilleana is the most common, yup, from Brazil. I haven't had a chance to see it flower yet, but that should confirm it.
Yes, I know the lucky bean tree, we had a few next to the playground at school, those beans hurt when you throw them! But no, the one in my garden doesn't have thorns, I don't think it is a lucky bean tree. But thanks for the contribution! and the schoolboy memories
I'm fairly sure that the third tree is a syringa tree.. If it is, it should be in my plan to remove at some stage, right?
Hi Roy, Third tree is definitely NOT a syringa, so don't remove. First one looks like branches of a coral tree, also something nice. Second one, I concur is a Tibouchina. There is a yahoo group, called plant chat which is full of professionals and advanced amateurs in KZN, see plant-chat@yahoogroups.com . It is run by David Styles, whom you could also contact for advice. He could also put you in touch with someone in your area that can help. My sister has a completely indigenous garden in Umtunzini which is covered in birds as a result. Kind regards, Dirk