There is room for both
So what’s wrong with Brachychitons? A tree genus that is native to Australia, where there are 30 species, and they grow to anything from four to 30 meters tall. According to horticulturalist Piers Goldson, who has been working in Greece for the past few years, there is a place for both bitter orange and Brachychitons in Athens. «Brachychitons are very thirsty trees and their roots go a long way down to find water. Citrus trees, on the other hand, tend to have shallower roots, so they would not be competing for water, as their roots are in different areas of the soil,» Goldson told Kathimerini English Edition. «Each of them suffers to the same extent from the extreme cold. There is room for both. It is always good to have a mixture of species. For insect and bird life, it is always better to have a variety, rather than a monoculture.» As for Brachychitons being an imported species, Goldson pointed out that citrus trees were not native to Greece but were also imported some time ago, from the Far East.
