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Vitex lignum-vitae
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Posted by trish_g SE Qld Aust (My Page) on Thu, May 31, 07 at 2:08
I’ve been given a couple of little satinwoods (Vitex lignum-vitae) and wondered whether anyone else has experience with cultivated specimens of this tree? Wrigley and Fagg have a photo of one which looks as though it was planted in a park. Otherwise I only know it in the bush. Does anyone have any comments about its likely growth speed? I've found sources which call it fast-growing, but I'd like to hear from someone with personal experience of it.
I imagine this is a tree which would be a really good garden subject - not too big, very attractive fluted silvery trunk, big red lilly-pilly-like fruits, dense green canopy, drought hardy. So why aren't they all over the place?
Trish |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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| Why indeed do Australians not take more pride in a wide range of our local flora and use them in our gardens. It's the old story I suppose, the grass is always greener some where else. |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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| I am growing Vitex lignum-vitae on the Central Coast in NSW. Of course it is colder here, but it is now more than ten years old and is a small tree about nine feet high. The berries are much larger than a Lilly pilly and have a very pretty sheen to them. They are quite plentiful some years and more decorative than the Lilly Pilly. I certainly would recommend this plant. |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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| Trish, here's a nice link to Satinwood. Unfortunately, it doesn't mention anything about growth rate. Cheers,
Frank |
Here is a link that might be useful: Satinwood
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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Thanks, Frank,
Isn't it a lovely tree? It grows naturally in a dry creek bed at Gowrie Junction - clearly as tough as old boots.
It amazes me that a plant that's so difficult to raise from seed can be bought - apparently as a seedling in a tube (though I didn't check really closely, so perhaps they are cuttings) - from Fairhill for $4.00!
Trish |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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| Hi Trish, Can't tell you how fast they grow, but can tell you that if you give them plenty of time, they do grow big (well, big for a yard anyway) - in our forest, there's specimens well over 25 m tall, maybe 50 cm or more at base - so hopefully you've given yours room to move!
from a few comments i've heard, i get the impression there is a bit of an art to germinating the seed, and they might be fast in relation to rainforest species, but nowhere near the growth rate of,say, most eucalypts or pines - just as a guide. Where they are in our forest, given its history, i'd think Robert's 10-year-old example as being maybe a touch below their potential? PS - i found this web site as i've started to look around for info/resources on natives, particularly propagation info for a lot of species we have that we'd like to grow for our own revegetation work - so if you or any other readers of this have suggestions, i'd be glad to hear from you! |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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Hi Shane,
Thanks for the comments. I wonder what the Vitex trick is? Steve Plant at Crows Nest council Nursery propagates a lot of natives from seed, and is very goot at it. He says he got about 3 in a hundred with his Vitex seeds, so I think it was very big of him to let me have the remaining one at $4.00, to add to my other two. I have them on a rather exposed hillside site (and yes, there’s plenty of room). I’ve seen a mature one at Gowrie junction in a similar position, but of course it may well have started in dense scrub which has been cleared since. Oh well, at the moment I’m bottle watering and getting a nice flush of new leaves, so I guess it’s a matter of persisting till the roots get well down. From that point on they are unlikely to die - these dry rainforest species seem to be very drought resistant - but growth speed will have to depend on the vagaries of the climate.
I’m much encouraged by Robert’s description of fruits on such a young tree, which I hadn’t expected.
Where is your reveg site, Shane? Have you tried the Rainforest Plants books by Nan and Hugh Nicholson? They have useful comments on propagation and garden performance of a large number of trees.
Trish |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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There doesn't appear to be much in the way of images on the net of this one. One cannot tell from the photo of leaf and fruit in wriggley and fagg.
Does anyone know if this is it? It is growing freely on my bush block near Mareeba in FNQ.
 
Cheers
Judy |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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I don't think so, Judy. The fruits don't look large enough to me, and I wasn't expecting them to go black. The Brisrain site that Frank has posted above shows the typical fluted trunk of an older tree, but I don't know how young the "flutes" develop, so I wouldn't rule your obviusly younger tree out because of the smooth trunk.
It's hard to identify a plant a photo though unless it's something one knows well, and I can't pick yours. Do you know of the book:Rainforest Trees and Shrubs" by Harden, G: et al? It is a very good book for identification of rainforest trees in Northern NSW and SE Qld, and your tree might be one that also grows here - or it might be a closely related one, which you can then track down from local plant lists.
You might find your local council or landcare groups can help you with the identification, or failing that, press a bit of small branch with some leaf on it and send to the herbarium with a bit of the fruit and a description of the tree size etc. They offer a free identification service, which is a great help, and you would get a letter back in a few weeks.
I wish you luck, It really is worth pursuing your own knowledge of your own local native species, as some underappreciated gems with great garden petential can be uncovered this way.
Cheers, Trish |
RE: Vitex lignum-vitae
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Thanks for the help Trish. Mine is definitely not from that picture.
I have a plan to get the local native plant nursery come out and identify plants and help me with a management plan, I have 75 acres of secondary growth bush.
Cheers
Judy |
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