You know, the Currant bush aka Warrior bush is a very interesting guest. It can live up very high in bimblebox
As well as being found in coolabahs & rosewoods and is agreeable to sharing a crotch with other guests. Below is 2 views of a rosewood & currant bush double TinT on the neighbour’s place. The eagle mark is on the big box tree a few metres south of this double.
Instead of looking at guests as a whole & wondering how they got there I think it’s time to start seeing them as individuals. The currant bush can be layered or propagated by burying part of the stem section to make it reshoot as new tree. Ive seen this with 3 different hosts – bimblebox, where the parent currant bush is still alive and coolabah & rosewood where the parent currant bush is dead. The first example below is the “full house” and you can see how the currant bush trunk is attached to the ground AND rooted in the termite frass of the box tree crotch. If you give the guest currant bush a tug you will find its firmly established. I think if you were to cut the trunk just above the ground of the parent, the currant bush guest would be fine.
This next layered currant bush is living in a coolabah beside an old billabong. Ive been watching this combo for awhile now and the original ground dwelling trunk has started to break down completely leaving the currant bush coolabah bound for good.
The next currant bush guest is living in a rosewood and having a bet each way. The original tree is still growing conventionally but 2 of its branches have been pulled through the old rosewood a long time ago. Only 1 has taken & thrived whereas the other has failed. The reason I know the branches were placed through this host and didnt grow their naturally is because this rosewood is a ringtree. This is a wailwan special living on the GNR (Ginghet Nature Reserve) well away from the floodplains. In fact, it’s only enemy is time …
The rosewood/ currant bush combo as unique as it sounds, is not the only one. There are 2 other ground level TinTs of this same union but it’s no longer possible to see how the currant bush got itself established. Rosewoods aka boonery are tough long lived scrub trees but unlike eucalypts, are not given to ‘piping’. Piping is the term used to describe the hollowing out of eucalypts. This is caused by termites & takes place over many years, usually over 150 and up to 400. Eucalypts can still be stable even if they are 70% hollow – 70% of the total trunk diameter that is. Only the sapwood moves water & nutrient, the heartwood is not necessary for survival. However, having an internal guest that is also rooted may prevent an ‘over mature’ eucalypt blowing over in a storm. Just as there is more than one way of getting guests growing in their hosts there may be more than one reason for it.
