San Franciscans fight out of control pohutukawa.San Francisco residents are blaming New Zealand's beloved pohutukawa for destroying sewer lines and pavements.
The idea of planting the trees all around San Francisco streets was that when rising production costs make it too expensive to film blockbuster New Zealand movies locally, we can film them on the cheap over there.
But how did Metrosideros excelsa (a member of the Myrtaceae, related to guava, feijoa, clove, a beer-making ingredient, and the Australian eucalypts and bottlebrush trees) become a New Zealand botanical icon in the first place?
New Zealand Arboricultural Association vice-president Bruce MacDonald [...] described the trees as "very lazy", with their roots preferring to stretch along the easiest route they could find.Ah, silly question.
Without those trees there would be no CreativeNZ(tm) inc. dot.dotplc l.imited.
ReplyDeleteredsmste, peace commies.
Meanwhile, experts have acknowledged that importing the trees was not a clever move.
ReplyDeleteThe urban forestry adviser to the County of San Francisco told the newspaper: "In retrospect, it was a mistake."
He'll never make it big in politics.
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He should have issued a guarantee on the trees instead to make sure whatever happens from now on it was guaranteed.
ReplyDeletesorippi, sad shredding wee.
He'll never make it big in politics.
ReplyDelete"Urban Forest Advisor" is not the usual first rung on the ladder to absolute power.
The paper described the trees as the "cursed relic" of the 1980s
ReplyDeleteThe Donald Trump of the tree world, then.
I think I'd rather be an urban forest adviser than whatever it is I am now.
ReplyDeleteI recommend plenty of Maypops, and all the usual butterfly shrubbery.
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California, however, is to be commended for importing all those eucalyptus trees, which are very good for draining water and producing forest-floor kindling.
ReplyDeleteNever mind.
I love the way them gum trees drop their dead they look live to me branches on cars and such.
ReplyDeletecoroser, rusted singer.
Let them get wet? AG's head just exploded.
ReplyDeleteHere in california, we do things in a particular way. And that way might best be described as acting like an impulsive four-year-old with ADD. We're really great at thinking UP good ideas, and once we do that, well, hell, we're done, right? Thinking through the consequences? That's for those uptight eastern types.
ReplyDeleteSupermajority requirement for tax legislation? Hey, what could possibly go wrong?
Lower the bar so any idiot or corporation can get an initiative on the ballot? Why, are you saying that provision might be ABUSED?
My, my, that Kudzu ground cover you imported for your landscaping is LOVELY!
Hey! Let's convert all this nasty wetlands into evaporative salt ponds! That'll work out great!
WV is waxon. Screw you pal, hated that stupid fucking movie...
Maypops AND kudzu? California is starting to sound downright homelike. If a large segment of the population lives in trailers, dips tobacco, and has appliances, vehicles, and bathroom fixtures on the lawn I am THERE.
ReplyDelete"I will never plant a street tree again,"
ReplyDeleteJesus. Californians will complain about everything.
Welcome to a world where trees exist. Yeah okay, you get an occasional broken sidewalk or water main problem, but even more sucky is a whole city without freaking trees. The proper reaction is not to chop down trees or spend thousands trying to, it is to fix the freaking water main.
Of course it is some Dr. complaining. I bet she can't get a decent nanny to work for minimum wage either.
Or plant native trees that are properly sized and not sewage-devouring monsters.
ReplyDeleteSome trees do indeed have an insilvilculture.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for them trees all us hobbits would be mine slaves in Mordor.
ReplyDeleteautinoe, yeah you oughta.
sewage-devouring monsters.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the Jonah Goldberg thread, actually, madam.
The paper described the trees as the "cursed relic" of the 1980s, and an ill-fated idea that was now wreaking havoc on the city.
ReplyDeleteWait, is this also known as the Wang Chung tree?
It was nice of the San Franciscans to import so many NZ plants to make visiting Kiwis feel at home, or else completely disoriented, depending on the number of pints consumed down at the Magnolia or the Toronado. Cordyline australis or cabbage tree (so-named because it is not a cabbage) seems to be popular.
ReplyDeleteNote to BBBB: teh cabbage tree has edible bits such as what foragers like.
http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0007/2382451/twu-20100821-1330-Foraging_Cabbage_tree-m048.asx
But then they import the Muehlenbeckia axillaris and complain about it going feral.
Not to mention Coprosma repens (Taupata), Hoheria populnea(lacebark), Myoporum laetum (Ngaio), Solanum laciniatum (Poroporo) and Pittosporum crassifolium (karo).
WUSSES. You're being beaten up by PLANTS.
"The city of Auckland has been declared to be the weediest city in the world."
ReplyDeleteBack in the days of stoic Republican virtue, would the Romans have whinged about being defeated by aggressively invasive plants? Hell no. As Julius Caesar wrote, "Weeny Weedy Weaky".
ReplyDelete