I never expected to be writing my first 2006 blog about what I fondly call the AussieBastard tree, but it’s made an unremarked-upon appearance in so many TV news bulletins over this weekend of storm watches, that I figured it was worth a warble.

The Australian blue gum has such a wide presence here in the West in part because the University of California Experiment Station gave out thousands of the seeds and seedlings at the turn of the last century, according to a 1997 book by CSU, Stanislaus, librarian and archivist, Robert L. Santos. Read the rest of this entry »