Street Tree

The good old Queensland Box Tree. How I loathe thee some days. Particularly this time of year. They shed leaves alot and due to the waxy coating on the leaves, they dont break down particularly well, so have to be raked up a lot to keep the parks neat. They are used in Memorial Park around the playground and are magnificent shade trees, I had to take this photo on a walk the other side of town, as the trees in Memorial are far too tall to get a shot of the leaves or the flowers. Mind you they have been growing there for well over 50 years.

Queensland Box trees were extremely popular street trees, due to their high pest/disease tolerance, low water requirements, good shade qualities and are less likely to drop large limbs like Eucalypt species. They have lovely rich deep green foliage to them, and get these fascinating white flowers on them, which turns the ground around them into a carpet of white when they begin to fall off. The nuts can be a bit of a pain if you arent wearing shoes, but their usefulness far outweighs a mild inconvenience of having to wear thongs outside. One word of caution, dont plant them near a pool or gutters, as when they do drop leaves, you will forever be picking them up.