WoodenSpoon

The story goes that a scientist from overseas was visiting the Museum in Sydney. He crossed the street to Hyde Park and stood under a Plane tree (below).

The Plane tree (Platanus orientalis) on which the first Australian record of the Sycamore Lace Bug was made

He examined a leaf…

Underside of a Plane tree leaf in Hyde Park, Sydney

… and remarked, “I see you have the Sycamore Lace Bug“.

Three adult Sycamore Lace Bugs, surrounded by cast off skins from juvenile moults

This was the first record of an unwelcome invasive pest that is currently spreading inland from Orange to Bathurst and will eventually extend as far as Canberra and Melbourne.

The Plane Tree is a valued urban tree that grows vigorously in harsh environments such as streets and paved carparks, providing dense shade in the summer.

One hypothesis that seeks to explain its rapid spread is that since the Plane Tree is often planted along roadsides, tall vehicles can break off branches and carry them from city to city, where they are likely to brush against other Plane Trees.

Hi all,

Just to let u know that:

1. I’ve just upgraded Wordpress, so:
• The PHP 5 error that occured whenever anyone tried to look at any page except the frontpage is gone.
• I have finally cleared the spam backlog. I found 1 real comment in about a thousand. Akeismet did the heavy lifting. Apologies if u left a comment but it was swept away in the spam flood.
2. I’ve been “fixing the template until is is broken” but I’ll work out the layout soonish.

Here is a pic of a Dollar Bird chick. It was taken with a heand-held Ixus (a pocket camera)through a spotting telescope.

Mum is very proud of her hippeastrums. Here is the first bloom of the year.

The bulbs are from the Casino house, but they’ve had a hard few years, being dug up and damaged over several moves. But they perservere.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Daniel McFadden.

Culturazi

RiotACT

I’m sure that I can speak for all that knew him: our thoughts are with his family, may he rest in peace.

Click on Mr Potato Head - go on you know you want to.

Hi.

This is the first post in this, the latest incarnation of woodenSpoon.

yay, good to be back.