A few years ago, the eucalyptus tree, which was affectionately called the "wealth tree" by the people of Guangxi, has now been scolded as "the tree of cutting off children and grandchildren", "the tree of the dead country", and "the tree of lack of virtue". Despite this, Guangxi still retains large eucalyptus forests, will they be eradicated because of environmental problems?
The introduction of eucalyptus can be traced back to the Qing Dynasty, when Wu Zonglian, the Qing Dynasty's minister in Italy, found that eucalyptus has the characteristics of tenacious vitality, fast growth and easy planting, so eucalyptus was introduced and planted in Guangxi. With more than 100 years of development, eucalyptus has been widely planted in Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan and other southern regions.
But Wu Zonglian also ignored a problem, if plants want to grow fast, the demand for soil and water is also huge, so after eucalyptus trees successfully settled in the local area, they gradually exposed their "nature".
Eucalyptus trees grow fast, and in order to meet their own growth needs and absorb more nutrients, eucalyptus trees can even inhibit the growth of other plants. Wherever eucalyptus trees exist, vegetation grows slowly and even dies. The decline and disappearance of native organisms have also deprived many animals of food and habitat, and there will be fewer and fewer animals and plants in the forest, which has seriously affected the development of the ecology.
The reason why eucalyptus is tenacious is because the root system of eucalyptus is developed, once the eucalyptus seeds begin to take root and germinate, they will begin to absorb the water in the soil frantically, and under the long-term destruction of eucalyptus, the land begins to become barren, which eventually causes landslides and floods.
As a result, eucalyptus trees were labeled as "overlord trees" and "pumps". So why are eucalyptus trees, which have become a disaster, still planted in a large area in Guangxi?
First, eucalyptus has a high economic value in both the wood and paper industries.
Eucalyptus is a fast-growing tree with high resistance to corrosion, making it an excellent wood choice for everything from furniture to construction. It takes more than 15 years for a pine tree to become a timber, while a eucalyptus tree only needs 3-5 years for the eucalyptus tree to become a timber, and it can also be cut down 2-3 times, and the comprehensive utilization rate can be as high as 90%.
According to statistics, until 2020, the timber industry in Guangxi, China, is 42 million cubic meters, of which 80% are eucalyptus, while the planting area of eucalyptus in Guangxi only accounts for 5% of the national forestry area. Based on 85 eucalyptus trees per mu, each eucalyptus tree weighs 600 catties, and one acre of land can produce about 255 tons of eucalyptus, and the market of eucalyptus is 300-1000 yuan per ton, calculated at 600 yuan per ton, that acre has 150,000 yuan of income. By 2020, the total industrial output value of eucalyptus has even exceeded 400 billion yuan.
Since the 20th century, eucalyptus has been widely used in the paper industry. The average length of eucalyptus fibers is 075—1.30 mm, both in terms of fiber density and color, is excellent, and many large paper mills use eucalyptus as a raw material to produce kraft paper and printer paper.
Low planting and high yields have made eucalyptus a major source of income for many farmers in Guangxi.
Second, eucalyptus oil is highly valuable.
Eucalyptus oil is obtained by steam distillation of eucalyptus leaves and branches. Eucalyptus oil can be used to prepare cough suppressants, mouthwashes, and insecticide ointments, which have antibacterial, antitoxic, and anti-inflammatory effects. At the same time, it can also be used as a flavor raw material for toothpaste, tooth powder, candy and other products.
From 2014 to 2020, China's eucalyptus oil exports basically remained above 9,000 tons, and the export value of eucalyptus oil in 2020 was as high as 13,057$40,000. It can be seen that eucalyptus oil is in large demand at home and abroad.
Thirdly, eucalyptus leaves contain **.
The first natural discovery in living organisms was found in eucalyptus leaves. In times of drought, eucalyptus roots will dig three feet into the ground to find water, when some roots touch the gold mine, the roots will suck a very small amount of gold, ** for human beings is undoubtedly a treasure, but for plants is a "drug", in order to reduce ** biochemical reactions caused by itself, eucalyptus will ** to the end of the leaves and so on, so eucalyptus leaves are valuable more than oil.
Eucalyptus leaves contain very little of the **, and it takes 500 eucalyptus leaves** that grow in the goldfields to create a wedding ring. On the other hand, eucalyptus can absorb the characteristics of ** and also help people to explore ** in a more environmentally friendly and low-cost way**.
So, in an ecosystem, can eucalyptus really wreak havoc on nature?
On the contrary, the destructive power of eucalyptus trees is much lower than imagined, and these inexplicable incriminating evidence are just labels after people speculate.
Crime 1: Eucalyptus inhibits plant growth and leads to extinction.
Among the miscellaneous names of eucalyptus, in addition to the "cash cow", it belongs to the "overlord tree", which is the most called. The reason why it is labeled like this is because,The branches of eucalyptus trees shade the sky and the sun, resulting in "no grass" in the surrounding area, but this is not the fault of eucalyptus, but the wrong way of planting.
Eucalyptus trees grow fast, growing up to 3 cm a day during the peak growing season and up to 10 meters a year. Moreover, eucalyptus trees in China are planted artificially, in order to have higher economic benefits, farmers will even plant an excess of eucalyptus trees in an acre of land.
Because the planting is too dense, when the branches and leaves of the eucalyptus tree are luxuriant, they will overlap each other to block the sun, and the plants that grow under the eucalyptus tree will naturally be unable to photosynthesize for a long time, resulting in slow growth.
Therefore, the eucalyptus tree is called the "overlord tree", which is really wronged.
Crime 2: Eucalyptus is the "manure pumper" and "water pump" in the forest.
From an objective point of view, eucalyptus trees do have a high demand for nutrients and water. But it would be an exaggeration to call it a "manure pumper". Eucalyptus absorbs more nutrients, but has a strong ability to use nutrients, and even after the peak growing season, it will return excess nutrients to the soil, and the occurrence of land nutrient deficiency is largely due to the fact that eucalyptus is too intensively planted.
According to the research, in the artificially planted eucalyptus forests in China, the root system of eucalyptus trees is basically concentrated in the range of 0 to 1 meter, generally no more than 4 meters, and almost no groundwater can be absorbed, which will not cause groundwater reduction. And every 1 kilogram of pine used to produce 1,538 litres of water, compared to 785 litres of eucalyptus trunk matter, which is far less than that of pine trees.
In recent years, precipitation has increased in Guangxi, where eucalyptus has been planted for a long time, and surface water quality has improved. Therefore, it is not reasonable to label eucalyptus trees as "pumps".
Crime 3: "Cutting off children and grandchildren" is toxic
It is rumored that eucalyptus trees contain a lot of toxins, and can even pollute river water, causing the death of animals and plants. This statement is really a bit outrageous. The eucalyptus tree itself is not poisonous, but when it is cut, it does produce a special smell that will cause the body's immunity to decrease, and if you smell the smell of eucalyptus for a long time, you may become unconscious.
Research suggests that there are two main reasons why water that has been exposed to eucalyptus leaves turns black. On the one hand, eucalyptus contains elements such as tannins, which itself form black when combined with metal ions. On the other hand, when the weather changes abruptly and the water temperature stratification is unstable, the water will turn black, not because eucalyptus leaves are poisonous, but because of chemical reactions formed under natural conditions.
Moreover, farmers who have been planting eucalyptus trees in Guangxi for a long time have not experienced eucalyptus poisoning. Eucalyptus should not be labelled as "poisonous" based on speculation.
Ecological disorders caused by the planting of eucalyptus trees do exist, but these phenomena are not entirely due to "tree disasters", but to "man-made disasters". The scientific development of the eucalyptus industry requires further standardization of eucalyptus planting methods, rather than in order to pursue economic interests.
1. Intensive planting, which in itself is unscientific. **10,000 Fans Incentive Plan