This beautiful Rosewood tree is standing right in front of my house offering shade to all the neighbors and visitors. The Tipuana is native to South America and is a rapid grower which can grow to a height of 25 meters but this one is only 9 meters tall.
Unfortunately this beauty is seen as an invasive tree in South Africa because it competes with our indigenous species and they cause a reduction in stream flow and this can have detrimental effect on the ecosystem. It has a very aggressive root system which is so strong it can lift up concrete. This deciduous tree has large massive branches which can give you a shade cover of about 20 meters.
The Rosewood tree has a beautiful spray of bright yellow flowers which blooms from early spring. It has brown 5-7cm seedpods which we used to call “Helicopters” as children. The leaves are dark green pinnate and about 24cm long, it has compound leaflets of 2-5cm long. During autumn it sheds all its leaves and seed pods.
“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.”
― Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
“Trees, for example, carry the memory of rainfall. In their rings we read ancient weather—storms, sunlight, and temperatures, the growing seasons of centuries. A forest shares a history, which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.”
― Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces