Erythrina caffra, the coast coral tree or African coral tree, is a native of southeastern Africa. It is often cultivated as an ornamental and street tree, and has introduced populations in California and India. We have one growing in our yard. It’s deciduous, and puts forward both leaves and flowers in early spring. The flowers are made up of a main petal of a gorgeous transparent pyrrol orange hue, and four small petals. The main petal curves back to expose the stamens.
I spent all day indoors at the Park, in a first aid class. It was so nice to emerge into the late afternoon sunshine, and notice the new leaves on the valley oaks.
Superfast (maybe 2 minutes) paint-only sketch.
I sat in the thick oak leaf mulch to sketch this burned, twisted stump. Across from me, Jeyla was drawing mushrooms. My view spiralled upwards. Hers focused downwards. Together but apart, we breathed the damp, earthy air.
Sketched from a photo, following John Muir Laws’ Happy Little Trees workshop. He shared a lot of good tips on drawing both broadleaf and coniferous trees, near and far.
On Sulphur Mountain I saw a curious phenomenon—clusters of baby acorns on one of the coast live oaks. This makes no sense to me, for multiple reasons:
I know we’ve had a weird weather year, but I only observed this phenomenon in a single tree out of many hundreds I passed. Why would only one tree be affected, if weather was the cause? What’s going on here?
I have many beloved trees at Malibu Creek State Park; this young-ish valley oak near the amphitheater is definitely one of them. It’s been a while since I sketched it.
The Kurrajong bottle tree — native to the foothills and plains of eastern Australia — is adapted to semi-arid climates, warm temperatures and seasonal drought. It’s been introduced to South Africa, the United States and Mediterranean countries, where it is well suited for use as a street and park tree.
The kurrajong was used by many Australian Aboriginal clans and tribes. The seeds were removed, cleaned of the fine hairs within the seed pod, and roasted. Water could be obtained from the tree roots by boring a hole in the trunk and squeezing the wood. There are also records of the seed pods being turned into a children’s rattle or toy. The soft spongy wood was used for making shields, and the bark as a fibre. The leaves are also used as emergency fodder for drought-affected animal stock. There are records of European settlers using the seeds as a coffee substitute.
I went to my first Urban Sketchers event in a year; we met at Kuruvunga Village Springs, which is only a 30 minute drive from home, but I’d somehow never heard of it before. This very large dragon tree caught my attention.
A couple of fun things happened when I arrived. First I saw a guy I worked with years ago, and his wife, and we had a nice catchup. He was just randomly visiting the springs that day, nothing to do with USK. Then, I overheard one of the other sketchers mention John Muir Laws, so I sidled over and told her about our new nature journal club. She was very interested and said she’ll come along. Yay!
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