As Autumn becomes Winter, under perpetual grey skies, the intermittent thin drizzle keeps the saturated ground weeping down the hillside.
In all the dimmed-down garden and bushland, one light shines each day to greet and cheer me with its brightness.
My Liquid Amber tree is incandescent with warm colour, from yellow to purple and every pink and red in between, yet it still holds some green at its heart. The ambient daylight is so low my camera admonishes me to use the flash, but I trust my tree light.
This tree was burnt to a dead stick in the 2002 bushfire but it shot back from the roots and grew strongly to be the tall beauty it now is, seven years later.
I wonder if, forged in the intensity of that fire, it was given new genes, genes that hold the memory of the colours of fire, to warm my heart with the sight.
Thanks Carmen. I am hoping it will again be in that stunning autumn dress when I get home soon.
Beautiful! I love what you wrote about the Liquidambar tree.
Hi all! Just back home today after almost three weeks away, and the Liquidamber has lost about half its leaves.
It is an introduced tree DWG, so no doubt the same as yours: I’l keep an eye out for the gum.
Thanks for coming to the talk Gail, and for visiting my web site! Happy to have stunned you and Fleur with beauty! And to think it’s free…
Hello Sharyn,
What a glorious tree!
And how extraordinary – I am new to decidious trees, having several in my garden for the first time. A tree with bright red and orange ‘heart-shaped’ leaves that I was calling a Liquid Amber in my front yard, is obviously not a Liquid Amber! I have been doing some internet searching, but still don’t know what any of my exotic trees are.
Cheers
Gaye
This is just stunning Sharyn. Thanks for sharing!
G’Day Sharyn – Thank you for a delightful talk at the Port Macquarie Library. I so enjoyed my morning there with you. Thank you!
I loved, loved, loved this stunning photograph. A tree adorned with nature’s own jewelry – beautiful! Thank you for sharing your wealth with us.
Oh my very favorite!! Our North American Liquidambar is commonly called a sweet gum, or a gum ball and they appear to be the same. The leaves are as you say a delight in the fall, no matter what size the tree.
It has a resin that we would chew as children and the sticker studded gumballs are a nuisance to most, but not to me. It does seem the fire gave yours the determination to be more beautiful!!! Thanks!! DWG