Eucalypts

Are You a Eucalypt Enthusiast?

• Learn to Identify and Grow Eucalyptus cultivars
• Explore opportunities to work with Eucalypts, as a nurseryman, plant breeder, forester, gardener, landscaper, horticulturist, land manager, etc

Wat Can You Get Out of this Course?

When you learn about a lot of different Eucalyptus species, you are going to make better choices about what species to grow. You will avoid costly plant losses, and what you do grow will be more likely to grow faster, avoid disease or other problems, and achieve the purpose for which you have planted it.

• For timber production (forestry).
• For landscape improvement
• In rural places for soil stabilisation, erosion control, environmental management (eg. wind control)
• For land rehabilitation

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • Scope and Nature of Eucalypts
   • Taxonomy; Review of the system of plant identification
   • General characteristics of the Myrtaceae Family
   • Subdivisions of the genus Eucalyptus; Macrantherae, Renantheroideae, Renantherae, Terminales, etc
   • Popular subdivision into gums, box, stringybark, messmate, mallees, etc
   • Hybrid Eucalypts
   • History of Eucalypt taxonomy; botanical renaming and Corymbia
   • Plant Name Pronunciation
   • Eucalypt Flower Structure; inflorescence, flowers
   • Eucalypt leaf structure
   • Resources and further Information; nurseries, seed, herbaria, etc.
2. Culture
   • Soils and Soil Structure
   • Soil Chemistry
   • Nutrition
   • Fertilizers
   • Summary of Eucalypt characteristics and culture
   • Planting technique
   • Tree Guards
   • Pest & disease that are commonly found on Eucalypts
   • Watering
   • Weed Control
   • Soil Testing
3. Propagation
   • Scope and nature of Eucalypt Propagation
   • Treatment of Seed during Germination
   • Substrates for starting seed
   • Transplanting Seedlings
   • Potting up
4. Commonly grown Varieties of Eucalypts
   • Scope and Nature of Eucalypt Culture in Australia and elsewhere around the World
   • Review of many commonly cultivated Eucalyptus and Corymbia species
5. Other important groups.
   • Introduction
   • Hybrid Eucalypts
   • Why Breed Eucalypts
   • Review of Mallee Eucalypts
   • Review of Gums
6. Lesser grown varieties.
   • Boxes
   • Bloodwoods
   • Peppermints
   • Strigybarks
   • Ironbarks
7. Making the best use of Eucalypts
   • Introduction
   • Timber Production
   • Oil Production
   • Where to Plant Eucalypts; amenity trees, natural and bush gardens, xeriscapes
   • Agroforestry
   • Techniques for Planting on SlopesPlanting on Arid Sites
   • Growing in Dry Areas; overcoming dry conditions, sandy soils
   • Eucalypts and Fire Management
   • Windbreak Planting
   • Plant Selection
   • Understanding Plant Interelationships
8. Special Assignment
   • Problem Based Learning Project
   • Plan the establishment of a collection of different cultivars of Eucalypts
   • eg. Gums, Mallees, Tall Trees, Short Trees, or Dryland Species, suited to growing in a specified locality.

Aims

• Describe the classification of Eucalypts.
• Discuss general cultural requirements for growing Eucalypts.
• Propagate Eucalypts.
• Differentiate between identifiable characteristics and cultural requirements in a number of commonly cultivated Eucalypts.
• Discuss characteristics of a wider range of Eucalypt species.
• Describe commercial uses for a range of different Eucalyptus species.
• Plan the establishment of a collection of different cultivars of Eucalypts (eg. Gums, Mallees, Tall Trees, Short Trees, Dryland Species), suited to growing in a specified locality.

What Are The Different Types of Eucalypts?

The genus Eucalyptus is divided into 8 sections as follows:
(Sections can be distinguished by structure of the anthers (ie. male parts of the flower which produce the pollen   you need a magnifying glass or microscope to distinguish apart).

A. SECTION MACRANTHERAE
   Anthers are versatile, normally large.
   Includes E.erythrocorys, E.tetraptera, E.calophylla, E.diversifolia, E.platypus.

B. SECTION RENANTHEROIDEAE
   Anthers versatile, broad parallel, sublique cells, large gland at tip or sub tip.
   Includes E.pyriformis.

C. SECTION RENANTHERAE
   Anthers subversatile.
   Includes E.radiata, E.marginata

D. SECTION PORANTEROIDEAE
   Anthers adnate, globular, subcuenate to reniform
   OR
   Anthers nearly all perfect.
   Includes E.microcarpa, E.albens, E.bicolor.

E. SECTION TERMINALES
   Many of the filaments without anthers, anthers adnate, erect or oblique on filament, cells normally
   distinct opening in ovate slits or circular pores at the tip.
   Includes E.sideroxylon, E.leucoxylon.

F. SECTION GRACILES
   Outer filaments infertile and much longer than inner fertile filaments.
   Includes E.fracilis, E.calcycogna.

G. SECTION MICRANTHERAE
   Anthers open in front (not on top) in broad oval pores.  Filaments normally fertile.
   Includes E.micranthera, E.cneorifolia.

H. SECTION PLATYNANTHERAE
   Anthers open in front or along sides with long slits or pores.
   Includes E.gilli, E.macrocarpa, E.salmonophloia.

The above subdivision of eucalyptus is scientific, and as such very precise.
Other methods (less precise) also exist for classifying Eucalypts into different groups.  Perhaps the most common one is the following:

This method is based on differences in the appearance of the bark or the trunk.

Hybrid Eucalypts
Eucalypts hybridize very easily.  Many seedlings found growing both in home gardens and in the wild are very difficult to identify because they are in fact a cross seedling between two other varieties growing nearby.  If you can identify the others in the vicinity, you may be able to take an educated guess at what the hybrid is.