IT'S ERRONEOUS IDEAS THAT ARE INVASIVE
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
April 6, 2008

Australian pines are invasive and illegal - March 26 letter 

I disagree with the letter writer's description of the so-called Australian pine as "exotic, invasive." First of all, beach oak, as it is known in Australia, has been a part of the Florida landscape for more than a century. Not exactly "exotic." By the letter writer's description, just about all plant life in Florida is "exotic," in that it came here from somewhere else.
As for toppling during hurricanes and blocking roads, so do live oaks, red maples and just about any tree that lives in the spongy, rockless soil of Florida. In fact I've yet to see Australian pines become road hazards. But there have been numerous examples of other species falling down and destroying roofs of homes and crushing automobiles within the past several years in Florida. Your arguments in this regard are specious.
They do not wildly reproduce. Stands of these trees can be found in many places in South Florida, where they were planted years ago to protect against wind erosion. Those same stands, planted more than 70 years ago, have extended their area by very little in that time. Invasive? Hardly.
And the very idea that the shade they produce could be replaced by Sabal palms is ridiculous in the extreme. The bushy growth bud of the Sabal quickly rises so high as to provide little usable shade in years to come and practically no habitat except for wasps, hornets and palmetto bugs (the state animal?). Few, if any other, palms are native to Florida. To the best of my knowledge (I've lived here all 67 years of my life), no shade trees native to Florida can tolerate the salty environment along the shore except possibly the sea grape.
I'm in favor of using Florida foliage whenever possible, and I think that the truly invasive species such as Brazilian pepper and punk tree need to be controlled. I've seen the damage they can cause to structures and the breathing problems when punk trees are blooming.
Removing Australian pines from our parks is pointless, however. They do no harm and they are beautiful, graceful trees. Our parks will look naked without them. Native yellow pines are just about useless as shade trees unless they are planted very closely together. They also are very slow-growing.
I think we should remove the Australian pine from the hit list and change the counterproductive law regarding their cultivation. Then, because of their close identity with Florida's coastline, they should be adopted as Florida's official tree. They're far more attractive than Sabal and cabbage palms.

David G. Badgley, St. Petersburg

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