Paper Bark Tree

A couple of weeks ago one of the trees in the little park at the bottom of the garden burst into flower. It's a paperbark tree. For a brief spell each morning the sun reflected off the white flowers and made a glorious picture. Usually the tree blends in with the rest of the grey-green foliage and I hadn't noticed just how big it is.

The 'forest' was planted many years ago by local school children. Perhaps it was a project to observe  ecological succession or maybe it was simply to green the area with indigenous plants. They must have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs on that small plot because there is hardly any light that penetrates between the leaves and in some places it looks as though it would be impossible to push your way through the closely packed stems. 

Walking along the path next to the trees you can see some of the faster growing pioneer species are beginning to die off, leaving the larger canopy trees to dominate the area. We do have a large variety of birds in the area so the wide assortment of trees and plants in the forest does provide a perfect feeding ground and also plenty of shelter for them. 

I would love to get a closer look at the paperbark tree but I haven't ventured into that dense growth. You can't be sure just what might be lurking in there!