Adventures in Hanlon Park Info-Popup Gums and their nuts – Mallee, Grey Gum, Blue Gum
More than 700 species of eucalyptus are native to Australia. Many appear in our parks, so we’ve noted three, which capture a diverse range of the famous trees’ characteristics. Among their desirable traits is their growth rate, they produce oil for cleaning, medicinal use and natural insecticides – they’re thirsty and used to drain swamps and reduce risk of malaria.
Grey Gum
Grey gum leaves are one of the favoured foods of the koala. Native to South East Queensland the tree specialises in poor soils. Its name comes from its bark’s greyish cast, which is offset with white flowers in summer. Like all mature eucalypts, they put on an annual layer of bark.
Plunkett Mallee
Over 50% of Eucalypts are Mallee trees, they’re slow growing, have deep roots and are multi-stemmed from the ground. Native to the Brisbane area the Plunkett Mallee is flower and nectar heavy and attracts lots birds and insects.
Blue Gum
Blue gums get up to 50 metres tall with a straight, relatively unbranched, smooth trunk that’s 2m in diameter. Bark is shed in sheets and forms patches of white, grey and blue on the trunk.