“Stringybark”
Description
"There are white-box and pine on the ridges afar, Where the ironbark, bluegum, and peppermint are, But the one I know best and the dearest to me And the king of them all is the stringybark tree." Why is it so dear? The singer's birth-hut was made of it
Notes
Andrew and Nancy Learmonth _Encyclopedia of Australia_2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, describes stringybark as an informal name for several species of eucalyptus, the name being given because the bark "peels off in long fibrous strips."
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, p.281, notes that stringybark grew on poor land, but it isn't absolutely clear whether this means low soil fertility or unusually dry. I would guess the former, though, because eucalyptus leaves reportedly are very low in nutrition value even by leaf standards. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Stringybark and Greenhide" (subject)
References
- Meredith/Anderson, p. 264, "Stringybark" (1 text)
- BI, MA264