Ever wondered why “gum trees” were so named?
The answer will face your stare, if you examine this post’s image!
It shows a Eucalypt, in the aftermath of the most recent of probably many fires which this tree had survived, very near to the Australian continent’s southernmost point.
The so-called “gum” is an exudate, more properly known as kino.
Kino is not in fact peculiar to Eucalypts, nor do all Eucalypts exude it.
A number of Eucalypts, however, do so to particularly spectacular effect.
That is why newcomers from Europe named them “gum trees”, and it would explain why at least some species’ common names include “blood” or “red”.
Kino is exuded as part of some trees’ defence systems; it can cover/seal breaches to their “skin”, which most commonly arise via insect attack, or via fire.
Kino can “lock out” insects, even trap/drown some of them.
It also has antibacterial properties.
You could think of kino as an almost limitless supply of self-made, medicated “band aids”, which the tree delivers in liquid form…after which the kino “sets”, on location, as required.
For many millenia before European colonists “discovered” and named “gum trees” – and “Australia” – humans already here had used kino for medicinal and other purposes.
Click here for more about kino, generally, and click this to read a piece by 21st century scientists’ who think Australia should be doing more kino research.
Eucalypts – and many other Australian plants – are adapted to fire; indeed, many species require fire.
(photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken on 25 October 2018 in Wilsons Promontory National Park – a wonderful place)
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Musically, this post presents two of my favourite fire songs.
Neither of them has a forest or bushland setting.
Ohio’s Cuyahoga River really did catch fire in 1969.
In fact, the fire which sparked Burn On was very far from the Cuyahoga’s first…or worst. (as you can discover here, complete with startling photographic evidence)
Happily, the Cuyahoga is now a much healthier river than it had been, for several generations.
Randy Newman’s faux-“river hymn” is on his 1972 album Sail Away.
Deborah Conway has created and co-authored many fine original songs since 1993 – as has Randy Newman – but I think that cut 4 on her 1993 album Bitch Epic still has her finest lyric, and her most potent recorded performance