Tree identification needed

[Allan at Wallan]

Whilst travelling back from Broken Hill to Wallan I noticed several
stands of trees along the way. These trees always seemed to be
between the roadway and fences ... never saw any in the paddocks.
Perhaps they have been planted by local councils as there appeared
to be fairly uniform distances between each tree.

The medium sized trees were easily recognizable by their very
shiny, smooth trunks and branches. Usually a very bright brown
colour and had the appearance of being painted with a clear
poly or finish. They were so shiny I had to touch them to ensure
they had not just had rainfall on them.

They usually had a single trunk but occasionally they had up to
3-4. The colour of the trunk continued along all of the branches.

I have attached a photo of typical pods which are 18mm square,
with a raised tip on each corner of each square. There is a hole in
the centre of each one with remnants of blossom? within. The leaves
are almost 40mm long and 9mm wide.

I cannot recall the names of the areas where I observed them but
there were places between Swan Hill and Avoca that they grew.

Can anyone assist please.

Allan

[Cliff Rogers]

My mum has something like that in her garden in central western Queensland.

[Allan at Wallan]

One person has suggested "Lemon Scented Gum" but
I believe it has a whitish to grey trunk.

These trees are a very vivid brown to orange colour
--- quite spectacular with the sun on them.

I have looked all through my book on Aussie trees but
cannot find one with the square shaped pods.

Allan

[rsser]

There's trees with seed pods very like those at Bundoora Park here in Melb.

It ain't a Lemon Scented gum though.

Did you fill the boot up with some Allan?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I know those pods! A lemony yellow flower?

But I can't for the life of me place a name to it... :B

[seriola]

Eucalyptus calycogona is also known as square fruited mallee, maybe what you have there. A few different subspecies, vary from white to cream and sometimes pink flowers. Fruit sizes are also variable, between maybe 5 mm long to around 15 and only 4 to perhaps 8 wide.
Much smaller than E. citriodora, Lemon Scented Gum, that grows to over 40m in good conditions. E. calycogona (if that is what it is) is a mallee to usually just 6 m. or so.

[Allan at Wallan]

Many thanks for your replies.

Ern, I grabbed a couple of dry, short sticks of it to
have a look at on the lathe ... perhaps a pen or two.
I will check out Bundoora Park shortly.

Seriola, you may have identified it for me. I had a look
at it on many sites on the Internet and it does come
close.

Cliff, time to visit your Mum:D Ask her to identify the
tree please.

Allan

[rsser]

The fruit form is as best I can tell described as 'campanulate' acc to Forest Trees of Australia. There are quite a few pics of species' fruit in the book and I'll take a wander through Allan. There's a couple of pics approximating it in the current Australian Wood Review.

The Bundoora park specimens are on the uphill side of the road running to the golf course.

[Wizened of Oz]

Hi Allan
I think what you have there is the Fuschia gum, Eucalyptus forrestiana. It is a very popular street tree in places such as Mildura. Not native to the area, it's natural habitat is a small area of southwest WA.
The size you quote and the pendulous nature of the fruits are distinctive. E. calycogona fruits are very much smaller (6mm square) and are held more or less upright. E forrestiana has the smooth brown bark throughout whereas E. calycogona has grey bark and a rough stocking.
The buds of the Fuschia Gum are a brilliant red and every bit as attractive as the open flowers. In cultivation it seldom exceeds 4m tall.

[Cliff Rogers]

...

Cliff, time to visit your Mum:D Ask her to identify the
tree please.

Allan


I sent her the picture, she says...

Looks like a square fruited mallee, E. tetraptera.
Usually found in WA.
Did it have red flowers?
Moderately drought and frost tolerant.
Now grown all over the world, but at home in sandy soils if that is the one.

I hope that helps.

[Wizened of Oz]

Not E. tetraptera, Cliff. It is only a small straggly shrub maybe 1.2m high (can be pruned to some sort of shapeliness in cultivation), and has grey bark. Fruit is similar to that of E. forrestiana but has a distinctive short thick twisted sort of attachment to the branchlet, not the long thin ones in Allan's photo.

[Cliff Rogers]

Yup, sorry, I just sent her the picture.
I have since sent on all the other detail too & she says...

Now I know a bit more about it I'll go along with euc.forrestiana.
I'd like to try it again now if I could get one.

[rsser]

Does E forrestiana have another name?

It's not listed in Forest Trees of Australia.

[Cliff Rogers]

Forrest's Mallee
Fuchsia Mallee
Forrest's Marlock
Fuchsia Gum

[Wizened of Oz]

Does E forrestiana have another name?

It's not listed in Forest Trees of Australia.

Hi Ern
You would never call it a forest tree. Very ornamental but it's really just a tall shrub.
Something like 950 species of Eucalypts now recognised. The majority would not be in "Forest Trees of Australia".
Most of them would be in the 3 volumes of "Field Guide to Eucalypts" but I still baulk at paying the $130 per volume.

[rsser]

Ah, OK.

Yes, one of the Field Guides has been mentioned to one of Santa's elves in the past ... ;-}

[seriola]

Will have another go, computer turned up it's toes friday and trying to set this up with the old xp disk but now have vista on the new pc, giving me a hard time. No doubt more to do with my abilities ( read lack of ) setting up internet connection than the tools available. Keeps dropping off explorer even though wireless connection is still fired up.

To the tree i.d. My first thoughts on seeing the pic was Euc. forrestiana, the mention of medium size had me thinking alternatives as Fuschia gums are small at best, especially as these are roadside plantings. But certainly agree that the Wise One is probably right as fruits and size are a better fit.
The other one I was thinking that makes a good roadside tree and has square fruits is E. steedmanii, even has shiny brown bark. Very distinct form though, would like to see a pic of the whole tree. For sure though if anyone has seen them before the flower receptacle has dried up into the fruit and they are bright red then they are undoubtably E. forrestiana, cheers seriola.

[artme]

To be growing there it would need to be:

#Heat/drought tolerant

#Frost tolerant

#Wet feet tolerant as it is probably growing in the table drain

I'd suggest it grows between road and fence because it hasn't established in big enough numbers in paddocks to resist being grazed out of existence.

I don't ever recall seeing such a tree when I lived out that way so it is probably not native to the area.

[Wizened of Oz]

The other one I was thinking that makes a good roadside tree and has square fruits is E. steedmanii, even has shiny brown bark. Very distinct form though, would like to see a pic of the whole tree. For sure though if anyone has seen them before the flower receptacle has dried up into the fruit and they are bright red then they are undoubtably E. forrestiana, cheers seriola.

seriola, you are right. The thing in the photo that says it's E. steedmanii are the exserted valves. (Exserted = projecting beyond the rim of the fruit)
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, the valves in the photo are the little pointed bits sticking out the centre of the fruit. These are the valves that enclose the seeds until ripening. The valves of E. forrestiana are not exserted.
So sorry Allan, Cliff and all for misinformation. My visits to where these trees grow are too few and too short (and my research too cursory).

I think seriola has nailed it. E. steedmanii.

[Cliff Rogers]

:2tsup:

Have passed the extra info on to my Mum, thanks.

[seriola]

I am heading off to town later today and will check out a couple of street trees, I have no reference books here as I left them on loan to the bloke who took over my job when I retired. I think it is time I reclaimed them.
I.D. of eucs. can be difficult because features such as leaves, form / size, buds / caps etc. can be so variable depending on occurence, but inserted / exerted valves are one of the more reliable features. The other thing I want to check out are the fruit stalks, I think generally the fruits themselves taper down more on Fuschia gum, usually anyway.

I am sure if someone from the area was able to get a pic of one of the trees the species would be immediately obvious. Tree i.d. is always so much easier with more than one feature to view, especially when using pics.

[texx]

this is what one of my books says .( BOTANICA'S TREE'S AND SHRUB'S )

[Cliff Rogers]

... I have no reference books here as I left them on loan to the bloke who took over my job when I retired. I think it is time I reclaimed them.
I.D. of eucs. can be difficult because features such as leaves, form / size, buds / caps etc. can be so variable depending on occurence, but inserted / exerted valves are one of the more reliable features. .....

Yup.
Mum says...
<style>@font-face { font-family: Book Antiqua; } @page Section1 {size: 612.0pt 792.0pt; margin: 72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; } P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman" } LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman" } DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman" } A:link { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline } SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline } A:visited { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline } SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline } SPAN.EmailStyle17 { FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: "Book Antiqua"; TEXT-DECORATION: none; mso-style-type: personal-compose } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 } </style> I have Stan Kelly's books on eucalypts and if I had had a photo of leaves, size of tree and size of fruit, they should be able to identify the tree.
Size by picture looks like tretaptera but if the photo is blown up then steedmanii could be the one.

Al, you better go back & take some more pics. :D

[Allan at Wallan]

You guys are fantastic ... I reckon you have now
pinned it down as "Eucalyptus Steedmanii" (Steedman's Gum).

I have precised some info from a site www.smgrowers.com (http://www.smgrowers.com)
where they say:

Spreading shrub or small tree 20 to 35 feet tall with a dense
crown of narrow elliptic dark green leaves and a smooth gray-brown
trunk that peels off in ribbons in the late summer to expose
red-brown new bark. In summer appear the 1 inch long flowers
in small clusters that are usually a pale yellow but can be pink
or red. This rare species comes from an isolated population in
Western Australia. Little to no irrigation once established and
is relatively frost hardy.

On other sites it is described as a planation tree used as wind
breaks which also ties in with my observations.

I will wait for another trip in the area to confirm flowers and the
ribbons of bark peeling off. At this stage I am happy.

Thanks again,

Allan