Pittosporum
12 comments
I have read several times questions about pittosporums, but couldn’t figure out what the attraction was, since they are almost a weed here. When I bought my house, there were 3 other places with it, buy all or none. So I acquired 6000 sq. meters of wood up the hill from me that was full of eucalyptus, acacia, and a tree everyone called faia. After some research, it turned out to be Pittosporum undulatum. At one time, the wooded area used to be orchards and squares were someone had cleared the rocks and made areas of about 3 or 4 meters square to grow things. Someone imported the eucalyptus and at the same time Pittosporum u. which is native to NSW in Australia. It is an evergreen that withstands the wind very well, can be cut and dried for wood in the winter or BBQ’s in the summer, and can be used as a hedge. The drawback is that it seeds prolifically, and has escaped to infest all the islands. I’m always pulling up little trees in my garden as if it was a weed.
This is right in front, but it won’t be there much longer as they are putting in a road for cows to move along.
But these trees can get really tall – about 30 -40 feet.
But I enjoy going here during the summer when it gets hot.
6 Jun, 2010
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Loved your blog - well I have a Pittosporum too and now if I get fed up with it, I shall know what to do (use it to start the BBQ!) wonderful pictures by the way, looks a bit like fairyland
6 Jun, 2010
Loved the pics as Titchy says its like fairyland.
6 Jun, 2010
Your very own wood - wow!
19 Feb, 2012
I never knew Pittosporum would grow so high! Its a real challenge to keep one going where I live!
13 Jan, 2016
I do think....from your pics. And from the images on Google...that The Azores is like Scotland, but with an ideal climate! Best of all worlds!
13 Jan, 2016
It reminds me of my native San Francisco Bay Area and of Auckland, N.Z.
14 Jan, 2016
You have lived in some beautiful places Wylie!
15 Jan, 2016
Wylie,what was the original native trees? Or were there?
I was going to take a photo of one P.undulatum tree by the local school. It used to be a beautiful rounded crown tree.
Since the drought the school turned off the water and even with our normal rains..it looks bad.
Its hard to have a garden worth looking at with no summer irrigation. A lesson for me to try more natives I guess.
18 Jun, 2016
All I can do is refer you to www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/index.php?lang=en
Click on Vascular Plants, and then on the next page, check the endemic box and hit search. When you click on a plant species, it will show which islands have it. There is also a symbol if there is a photo. To go back to the list, click on Back (which is on the same line as the species name).
A sad note: the top and bottom photo have been paved over for an agricultural road.
18 Jun, 2016
Took a look..not very many plants but what I did see reminded me of a high valley in tropical Mexico. The Pericallis was almost identical to the many "Tree Daisy's" found there. Only the Pericallis is purple not yellow or white. Something to look for.
Interesting too is the tree sized native Juniper resembles the Hollywood Junipers planted all over California. Here,too dry for them to reproduce.
24 Jun, 2016
I don't have a problem with the Juniper reproducing: the non- natives tend to crowd them out. I have one that is around 15 feet tall. I have never seen a Azorina vidalii flowering around here.
25 Jun, 2016
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That looks to be a lovely lush,green,shady place to retreat to in the hottest weather wylie ... :o)
6 Jun, 2010