drought tolerant trees?

[catalyst]

i know, not strictly vegetables!
but, we have a problem here with eucalyptus (blue gum) plantations, and i am trying to find species of trees that could be a commercial pulp crop that people could plant instead of euca. needs to be fast growing, drought resistant, able to stand minus 7 degrees in january....

anyone got any ideas?

[Millymollymandy]

Mimosa? (Acacia dealbata) Ours grows really fast, can take that degree of coldness and a bit more and needs next to no water in summer.

I have no idea what a commercial pulp crop is though so don't know what you need the trees for!

[possum]

we live in an area of nz that is one of the driest and hottest and most free draining soil in nz, so if you want something to survive it has to either be watered or be completetly drought resistant.
Gum trees once they are big enough will durvive without water, some varieties better than others - the silver leafed ones and the small leafed ones, the large leafed ones will suffer in winter
wattle (related to the mimosa i believe) will also survive and does not need as much water as a gum tree when young. purple wattle is particularly attractive.
however the ultimate drought resistant tree is tree lucerne, it does not require watering even after a couple of months of no rain an temperatures in the mid thirties, even when only a very small seedling say 6 inches high. it grwos rapidly and is a god nitrogen fixer and forage tree. it only lives to 15 or 20 years. we have loads of the stuff.

[catalyst]

mimosa is a fire problem here as much as the eucalyptus.

so far i have found kiri:
http://www.paulowniatrees.com.au/

which look very promising.
eucalyptus is grown to make toilet paper, or mdf and such nasties...
but any tree that would provide any economic return quickly is what i am looking for, especially if they aid other tree growth which paulownia seems to...

[Magpie]

Are there native Portugese trees you could use? Surely they would be adapted already tho the climate?

[catalyst]

all native trees are much slower growing than the eucalyptus which dominates here...
Paulownia seems good because you can intercrop with native hardwoods, which benefit from the paulownia, then when you cut the paulownia a forest of hardwoods is already established...

[possum]

i've be reading up on paulownia since you menioned it, it could be a good tree for us to plant, we are wanting some fast growing trees to plant on the boundary and around a proposed campsite area, i have found a source of seed in nz, so am about to order some.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Ide throw Olive trees into the mix for something that will grow on next to no water. and in trash soil. dont know what it would be liek for a pulp crop though - mega hard wood