Tree of the Week: The Blue Gum

Always welcome after a week of dreary news on housing and the economy: Pieter Severynen's "Tree of the Week." Enjoy.

The Blue Gum — Eucalyptus globulus

"After the 1849 Gold Rush, transpacific shipping was booming. Seeds of the Australian Blue Gum Eucalyptus from Southern Victoria and Tasmania were imported in San Francisco in 1853; by 1860 the young Blue Gums had reached 50 feet. Californians started planting and hyping the incredibly fast-growing trees; thousands of newly planted acres were sold as investment property. In 1876, state Sen. Ellwood Cooper promoted their use in ‘Forest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees,’ in which he wrote about his experimental plantings near Santa Barbara. But the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 led to the gradual replacement of wood with oil for industrial energy use. When it also became known that weed from young Blue Gum trees makes good firewood and pulp, but poor lumber because it is very difficult to cure, the instant-gratification plantation bubble burst. Still, we are left in Southern California with two thousand miles of Blue Gum hedges that protect citrus orchards from cold winds and we see thousands of older ornamental specimens in our cities.

"The evergreen Blue Gum grows into a 50- to 160-foot-tall, 30- to 75-foot-wide tree with massive trunk and braches, impressive in stature but sloppy in foliage. Juvenile leaves are oval and silvery blue-gray; the 6- to 12-inch-long mature dark gray-green leaves hang down vertically. All leaves are so full of ethereal oils that you can actually smell the tree some distance away (but the crushed leaf smell test is fun). Small, creamy white flowers with numerous stamens appear during November–April, after the cap (Greek: eu –completely; kaluptos – cover) has fallen off the little cup that contains the flower; the subsequent almost inch-wide waxy fruit capsule is covered with a button-shaped top. Long brownish-gray strips peel off the smooth yellowish bark. Thick layers of messy leaves, seeds and bark strips congregate below the tree, prevent other plants from growing and easily catch fire. The tree has a nasty habit of occasionally dropping thick branches without any seeming provocation or warning.

"Notoriously fire-prone because of its ethereal oils, the tree usually resprouts after a fire. It is aggressively invasive in coastal Northern California, but barely here in the Southland because our climate is too dry. Blue Gum is one of the most widely planted trees worldwide for the production of hardwood, pulp, firewood, honey, and the essential oils contained in the leaves. These are used in the manufacture of cleaners, deodorizers, food, insect repellents, and many medical purposes. For our urban forest we have far better choices available among the 600+ Eucalyptus species than the Blue Gum, although during the last 10 years many new Eucalyptus pests such as the sap-sucking, aphid-related psyllids have become established here. Thank UC for continuously introducing small predatory wasps to fight these pests the natural way."

Thanks, Pieter.
E-mail Pieter: plseve@earthlink.net
Photo Credit: L.A. Times file photo from 2000 shows Jeff Zoumbaris, forestry services manager for Burbank, stretching his arms to show the relative diameter of a eucalyptus tree.

Comments

[Eucalyptus hater]

These trees have caused decades of arguing amongst neighbors in ocean view areas. Please don't plant these weeds! Be a good neighbor! These weeds are being removed by the thousands in northern California due to how flammable they are.

[sfvrealestate]

Is there any truth to the story that these were originally brought over and planted to be cut down and used as railroad ties...but the wood proved to be too soft?

[Cal]

Nice interview on Open House this morning...

[Cal]

Here is the transcript:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/26/oh.
01.html

[Eucalyptus Ras Pecter]

Forget about your anthropocentric "ocean view" ... The Central and Northern California Coast has been imbued with these beautiful trees long before you were around.........

Fire-prone? So is your sorry third-floor "ocean view" addition.......

[Eucalyptus hater]

Ras, no 3rd story for me. I have pictures of my house when it was built in the 30's, with beautiful rolling grassy slopes to the beach. Go live in a cave where you might find it more enjoyable than with living, hardworking property tax payers, who like nice earth to plant rose bushes, instead of dead soil that can't sustain the life of a weed.

[Eucalyptus hater]

Please read all about these trees at http://audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0201.html

[Brent]

What a suitable tree for a blog about the real estate boom / bust:

"During the Eucalyptus boom in Southern California which started in 1907 and continued for five years, there was a good demand for young eucalyptus trees in flats. Quite a number of small Eucalyptus Nurseries sprung up almost overnight. Many of these were operated by people who had regular jobs and who did this work in their spare time. A man would rent a vacant lot, have a water meter installed, purchase a quantity of flats and seed and raise perhaps 50,000 or 100,000 trees.
I supplied many of these dealers with the seed and helped dispose of their young plants....On one occasion I had a customer for a carload of young trees of the Red Gum (Eucalyptus rostrata) to be shipped to the San Joaquin Valley. I made arrangements to buy these trees from a man who raised them on Crocker Street. He was a stock broker by profession and had taken up eucalyptus raising as a side line. (p. 132)

The Eucalyptus boom burst about 1912. There was now no demand for seed or trees. I had over 100 pounds of seed on hand. Nobody wanted it. (p. 145)"

Quoted from the book "Theodore Payne In His Own Words"

[robert zimmerman]

California's largest weed.