Before we left Lake Paringa though, curiousity got the better of me. When I first arrived and Karsten was still prepping lunch, I took my photo tour. Coming out of the woods onto a campsite, I came across this strange green stalk growing out of the ground. It was about 7-8 feet tall and awfully close to the base of a tree, but it was so different I assumed it was some other plant. Helen and Jenny were the plant experts, so I dragged them over for a look. Dave came along too. He’s more observant than I am – must be all those years working on the electron microscope at the University – and actually looked around a little and up. The same type of stalk I saw growing from the ground was actually sprouting from the branch of the tree, which was really practically dead. It reminded me of the chapter on trees and their root systems from the Murchie book I was reading early this summer – kind of like Energizer bunnies, they keep on going, and going, and going – oh, I mean growing. Dave thought it was so interesting, he grabbed the other botanical enthusiast on the trip, Catherine, over for a look too.
Right next to that tree was something almost as interesting. A big kahikatea with a parasite tree braided around it. Jenny pointed that out to us, saying it was fairly common and sometimes the braid tree would actually strangle the tree it was trying to live off of. It’s tough out there in the plant world – everyone for himself. People may actually be much nicer…