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]But why is their foliage so dense and lush while the same can not be said about the same trees in Australia?
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It depends on the species. Eucalyptus are the dominant introduced species around here, and any species look exactly the same here as they do in Australia. Fast growing too - 100ft in 15 tears..
I've got a few Eucalyptus to cut down in a few weeks. These are typical of many gums (the generic name here) in that they are "widow makers" - big trees with big dead limbs that have the potential to drop on the poor clown on the end of the chainsaw. Better lay off the liquor until I'm done cutting.
Maybe it has something to do with trees that are native to dry climates. The cork oak is native to the Med region and Spain and Portugal. Here is one in the heavy rainfall locale of Redcliffe Plantation near Augusta, GA and Aiken, SC. It has a thicker trunk, but the canopy still looks kind of scrawny like Eucalyptus.
Are our soils in the eastern US that great? I thought the Great Plains had the best soil.
The higher the rainfall the more the soil is washed out.
Yeah, the Great Plains definitely have better soil than us, but I imagine we have better soils than Australia.
I think you could be right about the trees in Australia being more adapted to dry conditions though. That's actually a good point. Maybe eucalyptus trees are more adapted to drought and extreme dry conditions, therefore not as lush. I know the likes of Sydney get more extreme low RH % compared to anywhere in the Eastern US.
Soil quality does have an impact, but not in terms of nutrients, but rather in mechanical property. Most forests like soils that have decent water retention (but not slow draining), and are easy enough for trees to grow through.
In parts of Florida with extremely sandy soils, the vegetation present is very scrubby, and the landscape is effectively arid-looking, despite being in a region that receives more rain than the vast majority of the continental US. The sandy soil doesn't have good water retention, and, thus, water drains to the ground before the plants can utilize it.
Parts of Texas and Louisiana have the opposite problem; areas in both states have areas of heavy clay soil, which is poor draining (thus remains too soggy for regular forest growth at times), and very sticky when wet, while hard as rock while dry. Some varieties of clay soil are expansive, cracking whenever dry for some time; such mechanical stress can prove challenging to tree growth, and thus, many areas with such soils, even in wet climates, have landscapes like prairies, wetlands, etc. Forest can still grow, just not as easily as in an ideal soil type.
There is a crescent shape region swinging from MS to AL (visible on Google Maps) known as the Black Belt; the region has the expansive clay soil described above, and, as a result, landscapes like prairie are occurring in such a far eastern region of the US.
Such soil qualities can affect tree growth, or even whether or not forest grows at all. Australia, thus, could have large areas of soil with the mechanical properties that prevent forest growth from looking "lush" in many areas.
The UK has quite a lot of woodlands and forests (even after much of it was cut down), and the clay soil in the SE doesn't seem to impede growth.
It's the sandy soil areas that look like scrubland here. The soils in the northern half of Australia are laterites, which have a crust baked into the surface, preventing water from reaching plant roots.
The UK has quite a lot of woodlands and forests (even after much of it was cut down), and the clay soil in the SE doesn't seem to impede growth.
It's the sandy soil areas that look like scrubland here. The soils in the northern half of Australia are laterites, which have a crust baked into the surface, preventing water from reaching plant roots.
same thing here in Florida. 50"+ yearly rainfall doesn't mean much when the soil is so well drained. there are some isolated areas in central Florida that are literally an arid landscape, populated by dwarf oaks and drought resistant pines.
i ask to myself,why in South America they are Deciduous and in Australia/New Zealand they are Evergreen,as you know all the Temperate Deciduous Species in Southern Hemisphere belong to one Genus,the Nothofagus,we can compare with the genus Acer(Maple),that is divided in a lot of SubSpecies. here are they Range:
NZ has a two tree daisy (Oleria) species that are deciduous, as well as Sophora and Fuscia, They are found at low elevation rather than high elevation, and typically in drier climates.
I've seen my fair share of Aussie bush, but I wasn't looking at the sky.
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I know the likes of Sydney get more extreme low RH % compared to anywhere in the Eastern US.
