Spinning Gums... peak blooming season

Spinning Gum: cold hardy Eucalyptus from Alpine Australia (II)
Notes on phenology and cultivation in cold temperate climates

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

A few weeks ago, the Spinning Gums started blooming in Galicia. After the initial stages, when a small number of flower bud clusters reach anthesis randomly, the peak flowering season was reached by late July, causing havoc among local bees.

Fig. 1: Peak of flower blooming season in a Spinning Gum (E. perriniana) growing in Galicia (NW Spain). Juvenile & intermediate foliage are present during the first flowering seasons. (Click image to enlarge)

GIT Forestry Consulting & Eucalyptologics are proud to report that after a shy first flowering season, the second season after reaching reproductive maturity has allowed this Eucalyptus to bloom freely and profusely, while new flower buds keep developing for further flowering in the next years. Reproductive cycle will be complete in some months, so this cold hardy eucalypt species can be considered fully viable and well acclimatised for our local conditions.

The pictured tree is the first of its kind successfully grown and acclimatised in Galicia (Northwestern Spain). And hopefully, the first of many to grow in the near future. For a description of the climatic types well endured by this species, just check our previous post "Spinning Gum, cold hardy Eucalyptus from Alpine Australia. Notes on phenology and cultivation in cold temperate climates".

Phenologic notes on E. perriniana in Galicia

• Flower bud initiation: May/June (late spring, early summer)
• Flower bud maturity: +10 /+12 months (late spring, summer)
• Flowering period: May/August (summer, peak in July)
• Seed pod maturity: +20 /+25 months since flower bud initiation
• Simultaneous reproductive cycles: 1 cycle of immature flower buds + 1 cycle of seed pods in maturation + 1 cycle of ripe or senescent seed pods can be present at once in the same specimen

Spinning Gum, another Eucalyptus acclimatised to Scandinavia

Fig. 2: Northernmost flowering Eucalyptus: E. dalrympleana at 61ºN

We have previously seen how Eucalyptus can thrive in the high latitudes of the Scandinavian countries by depicting the Northernmost cultivated Eucalyptus in the world, growing at latitude 61º N in the grounds of Haakon Vangsnes' Nautesund Planteslag.

Fig. 3: Peak of flower blooming season in a Spinning Gum (E. perriniana) growing in Denmark. Juvenile & intermediate foliage are present during the first flowering seasons. (Click image to enlarge)

Our good friend Frank Diron at Eucalyptus Haven (www.eucalyptushaven.dk) reports similar success and acclimatisation for the specimens of Spinning Gum growing at latitude 55ºN (roughly the same as Moscow!) in his Eucalyptus collection at Fanø Island in Denmark.

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© 2007-2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.