Terminalia sericea stem

The bark on this young Terminalia sericea tree reveals several stages of its gradual transformation, traumatically enhanced by external damage inflicted by some outside source, probably a larger mammal in hungry or destructive mood. People also fit into this category.

Initially pale green on the thin, bare stems immediately below the current season’s foliage, the smooth stem surface loses its green in favour of grey or even purple. Brown arrives later as stems thicken, causing fairly deep, vertical fissuring and roughening of the surface.

Bark may also peel in rings, although not in the photo. The upper, rivulet-like layer of oldest bark fissures in grey strips. Newly exposed underbark retains a brown colouring for some time.

A mature T. sericea stem reaches a diameter of about 40 cm (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Pooley, 1993).