River red gum is a large Australian eucalyptus tree that grows naturally along rivers and floodplains across inland Australia. As a garden or landscape tree it needs full sun, deep soil, and room to grow, and it tolerates drought once established but grows best with some moisture.
Family
Myrtaceae (Myrtle family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply and infrequently while young; established trees tolerate drought but grow best with periodic deep watering.
Soil
Deep, well-drained soil; tolerates clay and seasonally wet ground.
Temperature
Tolerates very hot summers and frost; frost-hardy in many regions, cold-sensitive when young.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Australia
Climate
desert or dry shrubland
About
Eucalyptus camaldulensis, commonly known as river red gum, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to Australia. It is a tree with smooth white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, white flowers and hemispherical fruit with the valves extending beyond the rim. A familiar and iconic tree, it is seen along many watercourses across inland Australia, providing shade in the extreme temperatures of central Australia and elsewhere.
Where it grows
Eucalyptus camaldulensis has the widest natural distribution of any eucalyptus species. It is commonly found along waterways and there are only a few locations where the species is found away from a watercourse.
Uses
Culturally, the species is an iconic part of Australia. Its leaves have appeared on Australian stamps and is widely recognised due to its widespread range. The use of the waterways for seasonal recreation also occurs within the habitat of the river red gum, again due their fundamental link to watercourses and floodplains.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eucalyptus camaldulensis 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.