Toona

Red cedar, Toona ciliata, is one of the pioneer rainforest trees that seems to regenerate in more open areas rather than within the deep shade of the forest, although it competes well with privet, eventually overtopping it.

Thousands of these winged seeds are blown from parent trees in windy weather. They start flowering and fruiting at about 15 years on our site. Some years seeds are produced prolifically, in others, hardly at all.

Here are some of the seedlings that came up in my potato patch which is downwind from a local red cedar tree. The cotyledons are a similar size and shape to those of privet and red ash. The true leaves then are deeply divided.

Seedlings of red cedar require nutrient-rich soil and develop best where the canopy has been opened up. These attributes make them an ideal component of plantings to replace privet, lantana and camphor laurel, where these weeds have been killed by stem injection or frilling.

As the the plant grows older, each leaf becomes more similar to the typical pinnate leaves of adult red cedar.

More about red cedar on the web:

Tree

Leaves

Flowers appear late Nov, with a pleasant aroma

Fruit

Tip moth Hypsipyla robusta