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Eucalyptus
Also called Gums, Gum Trees
Eucalyptus is a genus of more than 700 mostly Australian trees, mallees and shrubs, often called gum trees. The key to growing them is full sun, fast drainage and enough cold tolerance for your climate, since many species are frost-sensitive.
Eucalyptus () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of Eucalyptus are trees, often mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including Corymbia and Angophora, they are commonly known as eucalypts or "gum trees". Species of Eucalyptus have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard, or stringy and leaves that have oil glands. The sepals and petals are fused to form a "cap" or operculum over the stamens, hence the name from Greek eû 'well' and kaluptós 'covered'.
Most species of Eucalyptus are native to Australia, and every state and territory has representative species. A few species are native to islands north of Australia, and a smaller number are only found outside the continent.
Eucalypts were introduced from Australia to the rest of the world following the Cook expedition in 1770. Collected by Sir Joseph Banks, botanist on the expedition, they were subsequently introduced to many parts of the world, notably California, southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South America. About 250 species are under cultivation in California. In Portugal and also Spain, eucalypts have been grown in plantations for the production of pulpwood. Eucalyptuses are the basis for several industries, such as sawmilling, pulp, charcoal and others. Several species have become invasive and are causing major problems for local ecosystems, mainly due to the absence of wildlife corridors and rotations management.
Eucalypts have many uses which have made them economically important trees, and they have become a cash crop in poor areas such as Timbuktu, Mali and the Peruvian Andes, despite concerns that the trees are invasive in some environments like those of South Africa. Best-known are perhaps the varieties karri and yellow box.
According to Plants of the World Online, there are more than 715 species of plants in the genus Eucalyptus and most are native to Australia; a very small number are found in adjacent areas of New Guinea and Indonesia. One species, Eucalyptus deglupta, ranges as far north as the Philippines. Of the 15 species found outside Australia, just nine are exclusively non-Australian. Species of eucalyptus are cultivated widely in the tropical and temperate world, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, China, and the Indian subcontinent. However, the range over which many eucalypts can be planted in the temperate zone is constrained by their limited cold tolerance.
White eucalyptus · New England Stringybark · River redgum · Coowarra Box · Coolabah · Narrowleaf red ironbark · White gum · Indonesian gum · River peppermint gum · Tasmanian bluegum · Cider gum · Araluen Gum
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eucalyptus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
