AusBonsai

I'm not 100% certain about my species ID so if anyone has any thoughts I would appreciate the info. This was dug from a garden maybe 10 years ago and was put into this pot in December last year, a pot that was specifically made for this tree.
Like most of my Eucs it has been a bit troublesome (grubs and other diseases) but I still like it and will be persevering with it until I have no more patience. It regularly looses it bark which is quite appealing IMO.

A closer look at the pot.

Lovely tree. I am trying to grow some Red Box myself. Yours may be Red Box but the Grey Box is very similar apparently. The bark on yours is not typical but this may be due to lack of maturity and the leaves also don't look quite what I would expect. Could be local variation.
That doesn't change the fact it is a great looking tree.

I have said before the problem with ID for eucs is that many have vastly different juvenile foliage from the adult foliage. Rec box is a good guess but here are many species that have rounded juvenile leaves that look just like red box. Most of them eventually produce long adult foliage.
Regular pruning, as we do in bonsai, can extend the time juvenile foliage will be present. There are also a number of other species that have similar rounded leaves adult to Red box.
Bark is not a good indicator as it can take many years to develop the typical adult bark on some species.
I have a euc with very similar leaves and bark but most likely it is E. camphora - Mountain swamp gum. I may be wrong, yours may be different from mine but not possible to be sure at this stage.

Just enjoy growing this one as a Euc bonsai.

Nice one!
I have a few I have been playing with but I am still not certain about pruning them, it has led to a lot of die back on the main trunk for me in the past.
have you had similar experiences?
Tim J

That is a nice tree, is it as little as it seems?

The Euclid ID key is pretty good, it takes a lot of characteristics into consideration. You can just input the characteristics that you know for example if it's juvenile leaves just fill out the juvenile section. It's not failed me yet anyway.
https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/identify/key.html

I do get the occasional die back of branches but I believe this is just typical of the species, one of the things you have to deal with and appreciate.
Thanks for the link Starfox, will be very helpful.
I have attached another photo with the standard size thingo.
Thanks for the kind comments.

Looks good! I had some seedlings - transplanted about 8 good ones to pots, 2 lived, then wired the better one for trunk movement and it died. One left. I think I’ll just leave it to do what it wants


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Watto wrote: ↑April 11th, 2021, 5:43 pm I'm not 100% certain about my species ID so if anyone has any thoughts I would appreciate the info. This was dug from a garden maybe 10 years ago and was put into this pot in December last year, a pot that was specifically made for this tree.
Like most of my Eucs it has been a bit troublesome (grubs and other diseases) but I still like it and will be persevering with it until I have no more patience. It regularly looses it bark which is quite appealing IMO.

That’s a beautiful little polyanthemos mate, in a stunning pot
Your tree is 100% Red Box - can’t mistake the juvenile leaves & arrangement
Grey Box (E. microcarpa) have narrower juvenile leaves and a few other differences.
Looking forward to watching its progression in the coming years!

Thanks for the confirmation Jofi, as Shibui says it is difficult to ID with certainty with Euc's.