Afrocarpus falcatus, Yellowwood
Yellowwood is one of the grand trees of Africa and reach their largest size high up in the Drakensberg mountains of S Africa, where individuals may grow to 45m, while in poorer, dry sites it may only grow to 10m.
Features include:
- flaking bark revealing purplish brown patches
- an upright tree at first then growing with a domed crown
- Few branches spread out to support dense foliage
- Foliage consists of waxy blue-green to yellow green needles 2-4cm long
- Leaves are fire retardant
- the wood makes good to excellent and durable timber
- Grows into a large tree in higher rainfall areas but will do well enough in drier areas down to about 500mm, where it will form a shorter tree with a decent crown
- Can live up to 600 years
- Would make a keystone tree in silvo-pasture programmes throughout tropical and warm temperate Australasia
- Suited to carbon sequestration forestry