Here is a well known of paper bark trees forest in Shing Mun Counrty Park. Some TV advertisements and ancient Chinese Kung Fu TV drama were taken place here. After good rainfall days, the area of the forest is flood and inaccesiable. In dry season, you can walk to the bottom of Shing Mun Reservoir.
The paper bark tree, 白千層Melaleuca quinquenervia, is in the family of Myrtaceae. The bark looks like papers, can be peeled off easily without harming the tree. The flowers of the tree is white, looks like test tube brush. Strong herbal oil scent when leaves are crushed.
Same with other trees in family Myrtaceae 桃金娘科 (such as eucalyptus 桉樹), they are also strong scent when leaves are crushed because of high amount of eucalyptus oil 桉樹油, which is common used as main ingredients of heral oil in southeast Asia.
Another characteristics of the paper bark tree is high tolerance of waterlogged. Waterlogged means prolonged periods of
soaked in soil saturated with water. Water fills all the air spaces between the soil particles and this prevents oxygen from reaching the roots and the soil become more acidic. Paper bark tree is tolerant and survive in such environment.