According to the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, as the big battle between good and evil was about to begin, just following the Bhagavad-Gita, Yudhishthira, the eldest of the five benevolent Pandava-brothers, offered anyone who so wished to swap sides, and Yuyutsu, the half-brother of the 100 evil sons of the blind king Dhritarashtra, was the only one to defect at that last moment from the evil camp to the camp of the righteous (hence he also became the only survivor son of Dhritarashtra).

While the outer story of the Mahabharata is fascinating in itself (and extremely long!), there is in fact an inner story where each character represents a trend of the mind, so this war between good and evil actualy takes place within our own psyche.

Some would consider him a traitor, but I admire Yuyutsu who had the courage to be open and place Truth and Justice even above his loyalty to his own creed, hence the pseudonym I chose. I still have much to learn from Yuyutsu.

Further to Antiseptic….

Cedrela toona is an old name for the great red cedar tree that grows extensively in the rainforests of eastern Australia and right up through southern Asia. Its name changed to Toona australis in Australia years ago and then more recently to Toona ciliata when it was realised that the Australian trees were conspecific with the Asian ones.

It is not related to the Mackay cedar, being in an entirely different family.

The spotted gum; Eucalyptus (Corymbia) maculata is very closely related to the lemon-scented gum; E. citriodora. The species concepts have changed. E. maculata occurs in southern NSW. E. citriodora occurs in northern NSW and Qld. It has two subspecies. The southern subspecies doesn’t have lemon-scented leaves but is otherwise virtually identical to the northern subspecies with its exquisitely lemon-scented leaves.

The southern subspecies, which occurs extensively in southeast Queensland, used to be included within E. maculata. Then it was raised to species level; E. variegata, and now it is considered to be E. (C.) citriodora ssp variegata.

There don’t appear to be distinct cut-offs between these taxa, with some intergradation occurring between both E. citriodora ssp citriodora and ssp variegata where the two taxa come together at their southern and northern limits respectively, and between ssp variegata and E. maculata.

It is rather arbitrary as to whether E. maculata should be a species in its own right or a subspecies of E. citriodora. But I’m inclined to think that the current taxonomy is right, with it as a species and variegata as a subspecies.

A new species was pulled out of E. maculata some years ago; E. henryi, which entirely overlaps with E. citriodora ssp variegata in its natural distribution. I’m not familiar with any intergradation or hybridisation of these two taxa.

These species are now officially in the genus Corymbia. But after thirteen years I still steadfastly refuse to accept that. They are within the genus Eucalyptus as far as I’m concerned!

Well, thanks for that, Ludwig (I think). I tend to prefer to call spotties E. Maculata as well. It's interesting that I live in southern Qld and the C. Citriodoras don't have any lemon scent at all, whereas the ones grown west of the Divide are quite strongly scented. The issue you raised about hybridisation is a good one too, since I've come across any number of log specimens that arborists have identified as one species or another (not usually spotties, mind you), only to find the timber was not at all typical for the species, or that the arborists report was having two bob each way, suggesting possible hybrid combinations. Eucs do seem to cross-fertilize quite readily. The Mackay Cedar business is interesting too, since I've never heard it called anything other than cedrela until quite recently. I've not heard the latter generic name you used for it being used at all! Most people still call it an albizia. Given how it irritates the nose and throat like other albizias, I'm surprised to find it's not.

Anyway, thanks and sorry for hijacking the thread.

The things you can learn about posters on threads like this, and from the user posting histories!

Who would have thought:

that Yuyutsu was a defector from the dark side? Heretofore I was under the impression he/she may have been Japanese, and suffered from a speech impediment. Now I know better, and will be watching with interest to see whether he/she lives up to the connotations. (Oh, for the days when the use of the masculine imputed the feminine. So much easier when referring to the incognito.)

or that Antiseptic's seemingly off-topic post would elicit a reply that would tell me that my Toona australis down the wet end of my block was all along a Toona ciliata? (Digressing just for the moment into archaeo-botany, would Toona ciliata ever by any chance have been known anywhere as algum or almug? Anyone?)

or that Ludwig is fluent in German, not to mention remembering where to go to change his keyboard over to German characters?

or even more surprisingly, that Fractelle was a fan of Monty Python and John Cleese (aka Basil Fawlty, of Fawlty Towers)? Manuel (from Barcelona) comes across clear as a bell - "que". Then again, in the light of her confession to being a total nerd, perhaps that's not so surprising after all - many of the nerds in the world of the Ubuntu fora seem to be fans of Monty Python, including their Administrator, Matthew. (From an avatar of his: "That was unexpected!" "Nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.")

All good stuff.

Thanks, Banjo, for the details re an edition that has 'The Pearl Diver' in it. Although I can remember the first verse, that's as far as I can go. Know the story line, of course.

An interesting thread, Ludwig. Thanks for starting it. Emaculate!

Forrest Gumpp

Too funny. I did consider using "quando" but thought the reference to Manuel somehow fitted better, given the range of tangents you were connecting.

And now I clearly need to be very, very careful as to the level of personal info I reveal here given the skill in both extrapolation and deduction you possess.

Cheers

No Forrest I don’t know of any Australia tree called algum or almug. But then there are a lot of obscure common names around or that have faded away with time. Any tree with scented wood could have been called algum by some old coot of a Forrester...woops; forester, even if the tree looks absolutely nothing like a juniper (which was probably the original algum).

Incidentally, an immaculate post…except for that word; emaculate! (:>)