The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Eucalyptus obliqua
Also called Messmate, Australian Oak, Brown Topped Stringybark, Tasmanian Oak, Black Box, Browntop, Browntop Stringybark
Eucalyptus obliqua, commonly known as messmate stringybark or messmate, but also known as brown top, brown top stringbark, stringybark or Tasmanian oak, is a species of tree that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has rough, stringy or fibrous bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth greyish bark on the thinnest branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven to fifteen or more, white flowers and cup-shaped or barrel-shaped fruit.
Messmate stringybark is widespread in cooler areas of south eastern Australia. It occurs from Kangaroo Island, through southeast South Australia, throughout Victoria and Tasmania, mainly east of the tablelands in New South Wales, with a few populations extending into southern Queensland. Thus the overall range of latitude is 28–431⁄2°S. It occurs from sea level up to elevations of 1,475 m (4,839 ft) in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. The climate is humid or subhumid, with temperatures ranging from cool to warm, and annual rainfall ranging from 500 to 2,400 mm (20 to 94 in). Severe winter frosts are common, severe drought extremely uncommon.
One of the most important Australian hardwoods, E. obliqua is often sold with E. regnans (mountain ash) as Victorian ash or Tasmanian oak depending on its origin. It is slightly denser than E. regnans – estimates of density range from 720 to 830 kg/m (1,500 to 1,700 lb/yd). The sapwood is pale brown, the heartwood light brown. It has an even texture, with straight grains sometimes interlocked, and well-defined rings. Gum veins are common.
Eucalyptus abdita · Badgingarra Box · Wattle Leaved Peppermint · Powder Bark Wandoo · Woolbernup Mallee · White-mahogany · Lakefield Coolibah · Wellstead Mallee · Eucalyptus aenea · Welcome Hill Gum · Blue-leaf stringybark · Black Gum
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eucalyptus obliqua by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
