Eucalipto

eucaliptus
Description:
This group consists of more than 400, quick-growing, tender, evergreen trees and some shrubs native to Tasmania and Australia. These unique trees can grow to giganticproportions; some species can reach heights over 400 feet in their native habitats and up to 200 feet in California.

Eucalyptus Trees, also popularly known as Gum trees because some species exude agum, are fragrant and normally pest-resistant. These trees have leathery, smooth, lance-shaped leaves, which have a more rounded shape when young. Their puffball-like flowers may be red or orange andare very attractive to bees. They have no petals, but instead, numerous stamens arising from a capsule-like calyx, which give them their fluffy appearance.

The attractive, colorful bark of the stemsand trunks of the Eucalyptus may be dappled in gray, green, russet, or cream and may peel in sheets. Besides the decorative qualities of the trees, Eucalyptus are valued for their timber, theimportant oils of the leaves and shoots, tannin, which is taken from the bark of some varieties, and a resinous substance known as kino.

E. parvifolia: is a beautiful, medium-sized species that hasbeautifully colored, peeling bark. At maturity, the leaves are small, slender, and blue-green. This species tolerates alkaline soil.
E. citriodora: (Lemon-scented gum) is a large, quick-growing tree withsmooth, white bark and lemon-scented leaves.
E.coccifera: (Tasmanian snow gum) is a large tree with bloomy (bloom is a powdery, waxy substance sometimes covering plants) leaves and stems, notevident in young plants. The bark peels to reveal a white trunk.
E. ficifolia: (Red flowering gum) is a medium-sized plant with clusters of beautiful, feathery, red flowers up to a foot long.
E.pauciflora: subsp. niphophila (Snow gum) is a small, fairly slow-growing tree that is covered in large, leathery, grayish-green leaves. The multi-colored trunk has been compared to the skin of a python...