Eucalyptus gunnii
Cider Gum
Cider Gum
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Myrtaceae > Eucalyptus gunnii
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Common name: Cider Gum
Joseph Maiden's 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia’ recorded that common names in Tasmania are "cider gum" and in southeastern Australia occasionally as the "sugar gum" and that in the same part it is known as "white gum", "swamp gum" or "white swamp gum"
In the Noarlunga and Rapid Bay districts of South Australia it is known as "bastard white gum", occasionally as "yellow gum." Near Bombala, NSW two varieties go by the names of "flooded or bastard gum" and "red gum", although the species only occurs in Tasmania
Conservation status: Endangered
Etymology:
The name Eucalyptus is from the Ancient Greek words eu meaning 'good'and kalypto meaning '(I) cover, conceal, hide', referring to the operculum covering the flower buds
The specific epithet honours the collector of the type material
Flowers:
The flowers are arranged in leaf axils in groups of three on an unbranched peduncle 3–9 mm long
The individual buds sessile or on a pedicels up to 4 mm long
Mature buds are oval, 5–9 mm long and 3–5 mm wide
With a conical, rounded or flattened operculum
It flowers in most months and the flowers are white
Fruit:
The fruit is a woody cylindrical to barrel-shaped capsule
5–9 mm long and 5–7 mm wide
The valves near rim level or enclosed
Leaves:
Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile leaves arranged in opposite pairs
The juvenile leaves:
are heart-shaped to more or less round
greyish green or glaucous
13–45 mm long and 17–40 mm wide
Adult leaves:
are arranged alternately, lance-shaped to egg-shaped
the same dull greyish to bluish green on both sides
40–90 mm long and 12–35 mm wide
On a petiole 9–23 mm long
Stem & branches:
It has smooth, mottled, white or grey bark
Sometimes with persistent rough bark on the lower trunk
Juvenile stems can be rounded or square in cross section
Roots:
It forms a lignotube
Habit:
A tree that typically grows to a height of 35 m
Habitat:
It occurs on the plains and slopes of the central plateaux and dolerite mountains at altitudes up to about 1,100 m
With isolated occurrences south of Hobart
It has been introduced to New Zealand and parts of the Caucasus
Distribution:
Endemic to the island of Tasmania
Additional notes:
Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus gunnii was first formally described in 1844 by the British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in the London Journal of Botany
The type material was collected "on the elevated tablelands of the interior of Tasmania, especially in the neighborhood of the lakes" by Ronald Campbell Gunn
Use in horticulture
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit
This species is noted for exceptional cold tolerance for a eucalyptus (to −14 °C, exceptionally −20 °C for brief periods) and is now commonly planted as an ornamental tree across the British Isles and some parts of western Europe
Fast-growing, it will produce a tree up to 37 m tall when mature, with growth rates of up to 1.5 m/y, rarely 2 m /y
Uses
The fragrant leaves give off essential oils when they are creased or burned
These are used in different forms (floral composition, infusion, tincture, oil, etc) to treat many respiratory diseases, rheumatism, migraines, fatigue and as antiseptic
The indigenous people of Tasmania used the sap of the tree to produce a fermented beverage called way-a-linah.
Sources of information: