[mykowebhn]

I would say the Eucalyptus tree, planted all over the world but native to Australia, is quite unusual.

Young Eucalyptus trees have leaves that are rounded and are arranged opposite to one another. However, when mature the leaves of a Eucalyptus are lance-like and are arranged in an alternating fashion. This to me is quite unusual.

[bombcar]

All I know about them is they're bad railroad ties, and they explode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpH9gBsNEwI

[mykowebhn]

True. Although in their native Australia they grew quite straight. It's the introduced trees that grow not so straight and make bad railroad ties.

In areas where they are introduced, they also become quite invasive by practicing something called alelopathy, whereby they introduce toxins into the soil to prevent competing tree species from taking hold.

While I'm at it, Eucalyptus trees have very very dense wood which means the wood burns very hot. This makes it even worse for forest fires where Eucalyptus trees dominate.

(I knew my botany studies would come in handy someday. I just never knew when!)

[bacheaul]

Eucalypt forest fires are bad because the leaves are full of oil and when it's hot, dry and windy, they're extremely flammable and the fire races through the tops of the trees at incredible speeds, and jumps across large fire breaks that appear to be wide enough that they should stop it.

But at the same time the wood is also very dense, so makes great campfire wood, but doesn't burn so much in a forest fire, which is a bit ironic...

[mykowebhn]

I had to verify so I just checked with Claude (I was lazy) and you are correct.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[awesome_dude]

> While I'm at it, Eucalyptus trees have very very dense wood which means the wood burns very hot. This makes it even worse for forest fires where Eucalyptus trees dominate.

Forgive my ignorance, but I had understood the density of the wood meaning that the trunks of the trees were less likely to burn in a forest fire (which eucalypts encourage by shedding large amounts of dry bark)

[mykowebhn]

I just learned about this.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[helterskelter]

It's funny, a neighbor had me cut their eucalyptus down, then it grew back from the stump and I had to cut it again a couple years later. Then I has to cut it again a few years after that. Now it looks like I'm going to have to cut it again soon. It's become a running joke at this point.

Those things are tough, and they grow really fast in the right climate.

[benj111]

Drill some holes in the stump and pour in some weed killer/diesel/creosote.

[helterskelter]

> Then I has to cut

had*

@dang, I wish we had more time to edit our posts.

[Paul_Clayton]

That clause reminded me of Popeye's "I can't stands no more" and I took it as an expression of considerable annoyance along with a sense of humor.

[danwills]

I agree eucalypts are unusual, I also find them beautiful, especially ones with smooth light bark like Ghost Gum and Citriodora, which has light pinky-orange bark! Such a presence!). I've never seen a Rainbow Gum but would love to one day!

I live in South Australia and I was surprised to hear about all Eucalypts having 'leaf dimorphism' (that is what I searched for, then learned that it's usually known as 'heteroblasty') I have of course seen it many times in-the-wild, but it is not universal to all Eucalypts.

Banksia, Grevillea and Hakea are also very beautiful Australian native trees/shrubs imo, but they are a different group: Proteaceae. And there's a fascinating fruiting small tree called 'Quandong' that's in the Sandalwood family (still seems bit related to eucalypts or maybe Wattle (Acacia) when looking at it in real life though).

[lmpdev]

As someone who grew up with a Quandong in their backyard please don’t plant quandongs without serious planning

It grew 40m in ~10 years and spanned ~200-300m^2

[danwills]

Wow! I have not heard about that! A 40m tal! Quandong!? Crikey! Tallest I've seen is about 10m. I guess they usually don't get that big in SA.

Must have been ideal conditions for it in your case and maybe it happened to be a particularly vigorous/fast-growing variant!? I have heard that it can be hard to get the seeds to germinate (sounds like it was working without troubles on your property!) I'd actually be kinda happy if it took over most of the grass at my place though I reckon! :)

[lmpdev]

Yeah the Blue Quandongs get pretty big

Tweed Valley in NNSW so lots of water and volcanic soil

Edit: turns out the Blue Quandong and the Quandong are very different species - my mistake

[danwills]

Ah wow that is awesome, thankyou for clarifying that! Today I learned there's another native fruit with a similar name, but you're right it's a totally different species! Good to know!

I wondered, since quandong sounds like an Aboriginal word, whether it might be similar to what happened with the word 'sapote' in South American fruits. I have heard that it means 'soft fruit' and hardly any of them are even related species!: White Sapote (ice-cream fruit, it's amazing, related to citrus) Black Sapote: might not quite live up to the name chocolate-pudding-fruit, but a perfectly ripe one is still delightful imo, related to persimmon) I haven't tried Mamey Sapote yet or any others.. something to look forward to! :)

I'm envious of that volcanic soil! Quite clay-y in the Adelaide Hills.. I have had a white Sapote in the ground for years and it's still less than 1m tall :/ don't know if it will ever fruit.. should care for the soil better I'm guessing, that might get it going :)

[benj111]

>NNSW

North New South Wales??? Or interesting compass direction?0

[ikr678]

The lance-like down pointing shape is so that they can rotate slightly to reduce surface area exposed to hot sun (and reduce transpiration/water loss).

[culi]

Which Eucalyptus tree? There are between 700-900 species and they look nothing alike.

See E. grandis, E. tetraptera, E. chartaboma, E. deglupta, E. pulverulenta for examples of diversity

Some are incredibly tall with really smooth skin, some are basically bushes, some have really messy papery bark; some even have rainbow bark! Some have really long leaves while some have extremely short tightly wound round leaves