Digital Garden

Eucalyptus microtheca

Coolabah, Safeda

 Scientific Name- Eucalyptus microtheca 

Commonly Name- Coolabah, Safeda 

Family – Myrtaceae 

Habit type – tree 

Leaves 

Juvenile leaves are petiolate, ovate to broadly lanceolate, up to 26 cm long and 8 cm broad, green, grey-green, or blue-green, slightly discolored. Adult leaves are lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, lamina 8-30 cm long, 0.7-2 cm wide, green or grey-green; petioles terete or channelled, 1.2-1.5 cm long. 

Bark 

The bark is smooth white, grey, yellow-green, grey-green, or pinkish grey, shedding in strips or irregular flakes. Rough bark may sometimes occupy the first 1-2 m of the trunk on E. camaldulensis var. camaldulensis. The bark is smooth white or cream-coloured with patches of yellow, pink or brown. There are often loose, rough slabs of bark near the base. 

Flower 

Flowers white, peduncles slender, terete or quadrangular, 6-15 mm long; pedicels slender, 5-12 mm long. Buds pedicellate; hypanthium hemispherical, 2-3 mm long, 3-6 mm wide, operculum globular-rostrate (typical) ovoid-conical (var. obtusa) or, in subsp. simulata, horn-shaped like E. tereticornis, 4-6 mm long (up to 13 mm long in subsp. simulata), 3-6 mm wide. 

Fruit 

Fruits are hemispherical or ovoid, 5-8 mm long and wide; disc broad, ascending; 3-5 exerted valves. 

FACTS & MEDICINAL USES 

It is used for medicinal purposes, especially as a cough remedy and expectorant, but it also has febrifuge, tonic, astringent, antiseptic, haemostatic and vermifugal properties. 

A gum is obtained from the trunk. It is used medicinally, as a dye and in tanning 

The leaves, especially of plants grown in tropical climates, contain 0.1 - 0.4% essential oil, 77% of which is cineol There is some cuminal, phellandrene, aromadendrene (or aromadendrin), and some valeraldehyde, geraniol, cymene, and 

. The oil is much used medicinally, as well as in perfumes, soaps, detergents, it is also used as a pesticide 

The smoke from burning leaves helps to repel insects 

The peeled twigs are used as chewing sticks in order to clean the teeth and maintain oral hygiene. The bark contains compounds with antimicrobial activity and is best left on the stem when chewing.