Eucalyptus aerial roots

[greg27]

Sorry, yet another thread on a Eucalyptus camaldulensis. This is definitely one of my favourite species.

Here's something I didn't expect - aerial roots! I've loosely wrapped the lower trunk in aluminium foil and added some sphagnum moss to keep it moist and hopefully guide it down to the soil.

[shibui]

Very interesting observation. I had not expected that either. It is great from an interest point of view. Whether it is good from a bonsai point of view will depend what you are aiming for. Higher surface roots seem to rapidly thicken the trunk where they are attached so these will give you thickening at those points. That means no going back after as you will have reverse taper below those roots.

I do know that camaldulensis can grow new roots from the trunk. For a while now we have been playing with deep planting for revegetation. Trees are planted deeper than the pot so they get extra soil moisture then they eventually grow new roots from the trunk near the surface. I guess that could be an adaptation to living on flood plains. Any plant that cannot adapt to some changes in soil levels won't last long in conditions where soil can be added or removed by flood water.

[greg27]

Very interesting observation. I had not expected that either. It is great from an interest point of view. Whether it is good from a bonsai point of view will depend what you are aiming for. Higher surface roots seem to rapidly thicken the trunk where they are attached so these will give you thickening at those points. That means no going back after as you will have reverse taper below those roots.

For this tree I think it'll be a good thing - there's already some reverse taper at the bend you can half-see in the photo, so I think the worst case is the new roots will just shift the reverse taper around a bit

This tree is a bit of an experiment - my attempt at a shohin red gum. The whole thing may turn out to be a horrible Frankenstein monster with huge leaves and a tiny trunk so I might as well throw in a bit of interest!

[MJL]

Hey Greg,

Very interesting .... I am intrigued not just for the roots but the bark. Your river red gum bark is much course than mine... and yours appear younger too.

This is a stretch and I am no where near a native expert but .... any chance this is Eucalyptus robusta? The young bark looks like it could be ... and Greg, forgive me if it is certainly a camaldulensis...just floating the idea.

[greg27]

This is a stretch and I am no where near a native expert but .... any chance this is Eucalyptus robusta? The young bark looks like it could be ... and Greg, forgive me if it is certainly a camaldulensis...just floating the idea.

Hi Mark, you raise a good point - my calling it E. camaldulensis is a bit of a guess. This tree, and a few others I have, was collected from a local billabong that (according to council records) has mostly river red gums with some E. leucoxylon. The area I collected it from was a muddy/swampy patch about to be cleared by the council, surrounded by what I believe to be red gums, but I'm definitely no expert either!

From looking at some photos of E. robusta I don't think there are any in the area that this little tree was collected from but I'll have a closer look next time I visit. I'll also upload some more photos of my little tree tomorrow.

[MJL]

This is a stretch and I am no where near a native expert but .... any chance this is Eucalyptus robusta? The young bark looks like it could be ... and Greg, forgive me if it is certainly a camaldulensis...just floating the idea.

Hi Mark, you raise a good point - my calling it E. camaldulensis is a bit of a guess. This tree, and a few others I have, was collected from a local billabong that (according to council records) has mostly river red gums with some E. leucoxylon. The area I collected it from was a muddy/swampy patch about to be cleared by the council, surrounded by what I believe to be red gums, but I'm definitely no expert either!

From looking at some photos of E. robusta I don't think there are any in the area that this little tree was collected from but I'll have a closer look next time I visit. I'll also upload some more photos of my little tree tomorrow.

Don't spend too much time counting my guess... it resulted from a search of the google-verse after your bark looked different to mine ... and it seemed Euc robusta came up a few times when I search for aerial roots on eucs and then I thought: "Oh yeah, I think Greg's in NSW - might make sense." Nup... you're in the fine state of SA. Wrong on two counts.

[greg27]

Nup... you're in the fine state of SA.

Hence all the olives

Here are some pics - I'm pretty happy to call this E. camaldulensis based on the leaves, but it can be hard to tell, especially with juvenile foliage differing so much in some eucalypts, so I'm happy to be told otherwise.

IMG_20200527_072329.jpg

00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200527072350298_COVER.jpg

00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200527072509629_COVER.jpg

Getting off-topic but here's another shohin river red I'm attempting. Both of these were destined for my forest tale entry but I decided to keep them separate just to see what I could make of them on their own. A few years off of being called bonsai but they keep me out of trouble.

IMG_20200527_073104.jpg

00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200527073113647_COVER.jpg

[greg27]

Soil level!

Don't ask me what that root in the foreground is doing; this tree clearly marches to the beat of its own drum.

[Raging Bull]

Maybe it's a Triffid in disguise.

[Fluorine]

Hi Greg,

I've seen the same with my river reds over the years; I've witnessed aerial roots on potted plants from 1 year old to +10 years. Aerial roots have appeared at the base of plants and higher up, aerial roots will often poke through the styrofoam grow boxes I grow my gums in.

I've attached some photos that I took today with visible aerial roots.

Fluoro.

[greg27]

I've seen the same with my river reds over the years; I've witnessed aerial roots on potted plants from 1 year old to +10 years.

Thanks mate, keen to see your photos. Keep them under 1MB to upload them here.

It looks like my red gum may be starting to grow a few more aerial roots down low which is cool. I have a few other reds (14 ) and this is the only one that's grown them so far.

[Fluorine]

rrg1c.jpg

rrg1a.jpg

rrg1b.jpg

[greg27]

Some nice bases there mate, chuck a few full pics up!

[Fluorine]

Thanks Greg. I will do so in December when I repot.

You've got your hands full with 14 river red gums. I've fortunately culled mine down to two. Yeah, it's interesting that not all display the habit of developing aerial roots, not sure what drives it.

Good luck, Fluoro.

[BonsaiBobbie]

This thread is a few years old but thought I would jump on to it as I have found my river red gum has thrown out aerial roots over January whilst away (in Sydney when very humid).

IMG_8580.jpeg

IMG_8579.jpeg

I was away at the time and had set up a misting system to keep my plants a watered as best I could and also put some other outs around like this.

IMG_8581.jpeg

I was surprised to see.

As this was meant to be a multi stem “graft” to increase the thickness a bit quicker and other seedlings died after a repot, I have no plans other than seeing where it goes. Fortunately the most interesting shaped seedling survived.