Bushwalk Australia

So every week or two I walk past the beautifully smooth trunks of the silver/white eucalyptus' found extensively between Windy and Narcissus on the OT. This is one of my favourite gums and for a long time I was satisfied that I'd identified them as Mountain White Gums (Euc. dalrympleana).

However, over the last few weeks, I've read and heard from a bunch of people that should know (a few rangers/guides and one OT guide book) that they're actually Cabbage Gums (Euc. pauciflora).

Now, according to my EucaFlip (the widely acknowledged authority on all things Tree), Cabbage Gums grow to 20m between 200-700m altitude, and have white/silver bark streaked with red/brown. The examples I've seen have been between 700-800m (close) and closer to 40m high. Bark has been silver/white with no trace of red or brown.

Here's great example just as you start to reach the button-grass before the swing bridge.


Thoughts?

They look like the Cabbage Gum (trunk) I know. Ours didn't have coloured bark.
We had some, more than 20 metres here in Sheffield on my parents land.
One was a weeping variety that was particularly beautiful.

I thought Mountain Whites grew straight and tall, but there's always exceptions.

That's a striking looking specimen.

Really need to see buds or leaves to make a positive ID from Eucaflip...

taswegian wrote:They look like the Cabbage Gum (trunk) I know. Ours didn't have coloured bark.
We had some, more than 20 metres here in Sheffield on my parents land.
One was a weeping variety that was particularly beautiful.

I thought Mountain Whites grew straight and tall, but there's always exceptions.

That's a striking looking specimen.

Most do grow straight and tall, unfortunately this is the only one I have a photo of...

Strider wrote:Really need to see buds or leaves to make a positive ID from Eucaflip...

+1

Iv'e always thought they were Mtn White Gum, likely just passed on local legend than I ever recall studying them. I would expect Cabbage Gum to at least have some lower bark and colour even in closed forest (starting similar to those Stringy's in the back). There are environmental reasons for any Euc taking on a spreading (mallee like) form, here though, many are straight and tall (as you can see in the background). Interesting though, perhaps someone keyed them out for the guidebook?

Grab some more pics and of the leaves and nuts?

I've got a trip heading out Wednesday so ill try and get some leaf shots

photohiker wrote:

Strider wrote:Really need to see buds or leaves to make a positive ID from Eucaflip...

+1

+2
This paper outlines what you need in order to identify any Tassie Eucalypt - http://www.fpa.tas.gov.au/__data/assets ... pt_key.pdf

Fortunately in Tasmania, we have a short list to choose from. This paper gives excellent information on their distribution.

From that last paper you can see the distribution of E.dalrympleana and E.pauciflora. The green shading shows the six OLT maps with Du Cane and Olympus the bottom two.

The problem with common names is that they aren't consistent.

E. pauciflora has, in Victoria at least, the common name of Snow Gum - and that is certainly what the pic looks like. However, Eucalypt identification is very difficult and requires sight of bud, flower, trunk and leaves (old and juvenile) to be certain.

E. pauciflora (known common names include Snow Gum, Cabbage Gum, Weeping Gum and White Sallee) can grow in a wide range of habitat from above the snow line to sea level - from north of the NSW-QLD border to Mt Gambier and Tasmania. It's form varies depending on many factors, including the harshness of weather. In exposed sites, it is small, contorted and often multi-trunked. In more sheltered sites, it is often a single trunked tree up to 20m.

One way to distinguish between E. dalrympleana and E. pauciflora is the number of buds in a group : 3 for dalrympleana and 7-15 for pauciflora.

Now that is a snowgum bernieq an absolute beauty. Where is it (if you don't mind me asking)

Yeah, real character – hence the photos. It’s near High Plains Creek, 1km south of Mt Bundara GDA94 521706 5912023 (a very pleasant campsite)

Always consider that the eucs you are looking at may be a hybrid. There are a few patches of eucalypt hybrids of various pairings around Tasmania but I have long forgotten the details.

Its a good point MarkF. There are details in the third link in my earlier post, including a table (top of page 3) showing which species readily form hybrids.

Edit: from the table you'll see that E.delegatensis and E.pauciflora hybridise (blue ash group).