[ID] Eucalyptus species?

[Matt S]

Hi,

This Eucalyptus came up as a self sown seedling in a pot when I was living in the Blackwood area of the Adelaide hills, where we were surrounded by grey box (E. microcarpa) and South Australian blue gum (E. leucoxylon). I've always assumed it was a leucoxylon but I'm not completely convinced. Anyone got any ideas?

The bark peels off annually revealing a green tinged smooth bark underneath that soon turns a creamy white colour.

eucalypt 01.jpg

eucalypt 02.jpg

eucalypt 03.jpg

Cheers,
Matt.

[Raging Bull]

I'm no expert, but it doesn't look like a blue gum to me. Blue gum have distinctive blue-grey tinged juvenile leaves. With that bark could it be a ghost gum? Sorry, can't help you further.

[delisea]

Hi Matt,
Impossible to identify with no fruit and juvenile leaves if you are keen you could give the CSIRO eucalyptus key a go, but I don't think it will help http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org:8080/euclid/keys.jsp
I really like how you are going with this one. I see that you are pinching out the buds which is the way to go if with gums if you ask me. Keep us updated.
Cheers,
Symon

[Matt S]

Hi Symon,

Thanks for the link, really useful. It had a whole section on juvenile leaves so I reckon I narrowed it down to the South Australian Swamp Gum - Eucalyptus ovata subsp. ovata. The description matches well and the distribution is spot on too. I probably wont know for sure unless I let it fruit and that's pretty unlikely.

You're right about pinching - it's a constant task but if you keep on top of it the leaves reduce nicely. My plan is to get the leaves to concentrate just at the tips of the branches to give a couple of soft hemispheres of foliage, hopefully looking like the trees I grew up with.

Thanks again.

Matt.

[Boics]

I like your tree Matt!
Nice one please keep us updated!

[Sno]

Hi Matt . I really like the tree but that pot should probably have a pine in it . The trunk is showing some beautiful features may I ask how old is it ? , your growing techniques ? , Have you wired it at any stage ? And how long you have been reducing the leaves for ?
Cheers Craig

[RogerW]

I suspect it is a Corymbia Sp. but the species is not known flowers and fruit are necessary for identification.

[delisea]

Hi Matt,
I pinch out every single buds every morning as I water. It really works to give a naturalistic branching like yours has. There is a lot of moaning about eucalyptus here, I think it is because some try to train them like they are elms.

The structure on his one is sweet, it will look great next year when those secondary branches get the mature smooth bark.
Cheers,
Symon

[Matt S]

There is a lot of moaning about eucalyptus here, I think it is because some try to train them like they are elms.

I've been guilty of that myself (training like elms, not moaning about eucalyptus) and the few gums that I have have spent the last 5 years being restyled into more suitable shapes, including this one.

I've used 2 methods for leaf reduction:
- constantly pinching back to the first two leaves, not letting any shoot get beyond 4 or 5 leaves. If you let the shoots go longer the first smaller couple of leaves die off pretty quick, so you need to keep on top of it. If a shoot forms with a long initial internode, just cut it off as there will be plenty of shoots waiting to replace it. It's surprising how small the leaves can get, even down to a couple of centimetres or less.
- If I'm going to show a tree, defoliate it completely about 7 weeks prior to showing. There will be plenty of fresh growth all over the tree with small leaves. Chris Drinkwater over here has some beautiful red gums and he uses this technique.

I really like the tree but that pot should probably have a pine in it . The trunk is showing some beautiful features may I ask how old is it ? , your growing techniques ? , Have you wired it at any stage ? And how long you have been reducing the leaves for ?

I agree with you about the pot. I might start a new thread about suitable pots for Eucalyptus as I'd love to hear some ideas. For this tree I was thinking about glazes that reflect the Adelaide hills - soft pastel greens, creams and browns.

This tree has a long and somewhat painful history. It started as a self sown seedling that came up in a pot when I was still living in my childhood home in the Adelaide hills, about 30 years ago. I was just getting interested in Bonsai so I planted it into a plastic pot and let it grow for many years before I did much to it. I root pruned it occasionally quite hard without it dying so I just kept it alive. Back then I had a lot of trouble with major branches dying but I would keep the stump and hollow it out to make it look interesting. I struggled a lot getting major branches to thicken without causing others to die and it wasn't until I bought Dot Koreshoff's book on Australian Natives that I got my head around pruning gums, so it finally got put into a shallow training pot about 17 years ago. It grew well for a few years until for some reason the main trunk started losing vigour and it started shooting from the base like crazy, I think it was after a root prune. I tried to nurse it through but I was losing the battle so I let two base shoots grow, tilted the whole tree and watched the main trunk die. Ouch. Anyway it led to more interesting style but it set the tree back a decade.
I used wire on the primary and secondary branches to set the angles fairly shallow and to put a lot of movement into them. I don't think you could style a Eucalyptus without wire, they grow so straight and upright.
I've only been reducing the leaf size for the last 2 years. The tree isn't ready yet for showing so the next stage is sorting out the fine foliage into loose, soft hemispheres. And find a better pot.

Matt.

[Sno]

Thanks Matt for sharing your expierances .that's interesting about the total defoliation . I'd be interested to see the pot you come up with , I visited kangaroo island a couple of years ago and those yellow hills are a very Australian color .
Cheers Craig