Planted as recently as 1988, this tree is very hardy and grows fast. The aromatic oils in the greyish foliage smell a little like cider.
Cider Gum
This Cider Gum from Tasmania
has climbed twenty-seven meters in thirty-seven years—
a silver-green shout into our park’s sky.
Sweet sap runs under its bark,
once brewed as Wayalinah,
an Aboriginal drink
carried in story and song
for thousands of years.
Its high flickering leaves hold sharp-scented medicine,
antiseptic and soothing…
…while down here, at its mossy feet,
lichens write pale maps
and ferns uncurl quiet questions.
And look—
a tiny sapling at its root,
is already reaching
for a deep remembered sky.