ABC Wednesday, G for Gum Tree

Many of us know the song:"Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree..."And we also heard about the
koala eating gum tree leaves.The gum tree  is a Eucalyptus and typical of the Australian flora.
Steve Parish, the wellknown photographer, has dedicated a photobook to this "Gum Tree". He says that the humble gum tree captures the essence of the Australian homeland.
There are over 700 species of eucalypts which dominate an enormous range of the Australian environments. He also says that the mighty eucalyptus is the tallest flowering plant on Earth.

Wikipedia says:
" Ghost Gum, is an evergreen tree that is native to Central Australia.
It grows up to 20 metres in height and has smooth, white to cream and pink-tinged bark, which sheds seasonally in thin scales. White flowers appear in summer and the fruit are woody brown goblet shaped, valved capsules. The tree features in aboriginal Dreamtime stories and gained prominence with the wider public in the 20th century through the paintings of aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira.^"

Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree...

 How important the gum trees are for the indigenous people proves the next newspaper item:

"Two ghost gum trees made famous by the work of Australian Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira have been  destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
The trees, regarded by indigenous leaders as living spirits, had been due to be added a national heritage register as they are widely viewed as a symbol of Australian identity."

Painting by Albert Namatjira

 We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words    beginning with G , in our new round.

Photobook by Steve Parish

Eucalyptus flowers